Magic is in the Air
by Total Simaniac
Summary: After being shunned, Leaf decided to leave the Forest of the Elves to see how life outside of his forest is. He meets up with a boy, and the two form a friendship together. It looks like life couldn't get better than this for him. MySims is owned by EA.
1. Chapter 1

**Note: So this story is focusing on my other OC character, James Louiston. One of the goths that appeared in my previous story. There's nothing really more for me to say here, except enjoy the story.**

* * *

It was a beautiful day as always in the world...

Or in his mind, just another day as always...

There on an isolated island, was nothing more but a forest, and a couple houses. It wasn't a deserted island, because there was a lot of people and animals on this island. One person in particular was sitting on the rocks, watching out to the ocean ahead of him.

The guy sitting on the rocks has messy dark gray hair that's got a tied below his back, and a green hat. He has purple ears, pointy ears, and wears a green jacket with no shirt underneath, baggy white pants, and dark brown shoes. This is Leaf, an elf that lives on this island, that's known as the 'Forest of the Elves', an isolated island that nobody has discovered yet. The elves main goal in life, make sure to protect nature and animals. But in Leaf's eyes, that's beginning to be pretty boring for him, no matter how many times the elves have to remind him that it's all a good thing.

While he was sitting there on the rocks, looking out to the ocean, another elf came by, noticing that Leaf was here. She was carrying a basket full of fruit in her hands as she was walking into this area. Leaf looks behind himself, noticing the girl there. The girl had the same color hair as him, except it was in a side ponytail instead, she wears a green tank-top with a long white skirt, and orange boots. This is an acquaintance of his, and his crush, Petal.

Sadly for him, since the other elves tend to mock Leaf for wishing that he can see how the humans live, and how life is outside of the Forest of the Elves, Petal has been trying to distant herself from Leaf. Anytime Leaf would bring up humans, or how cool it would seem to leave the forest, she would walk away. The reason being is because she is usually having him on her side whenever the king would allow her to do some tasks for the kingdom itself. Petal was usually against the fact that Leaf would end up being her partner in things.

The elf girl notices Leaf sitting by himself, as his basket was by the rocks. "Leaf?! What are you doing?" Petal asked, walking up to him. Leaf hops off of the rocks, taking notice of his crush being here. "The fruit at the store isn't going to bring fruit to itself. What are you doing out here for?" Leaf smiled, pointing behind himself.

"Just wondering what's the next thing a random cruise ship is going to drop by accident." Leaf said, causing Petal to groan in frustration.

"Oh no...Leaf, we've been over this countless times already. Most of the other elves have been talking about you doing this, and it's really becoming a..."

"What? A problem? Come on, Petal. Think about how many cool things that has been discovered washed up on the shore." Leaf points to his house in the distance. "I mean, I still have that jukebox that washed up on the shore years ago...it's still pretty rad if you ask me." Petal places a hand on her face, shaking her head.

"Leaf, you know what the king is like when it comes to the humans outside of our island. Us elves don't know anything about them."

"You're acting like this is a big deal, dude." Leaf walks over to the shoreline, pointing forward. "I don't know how, but I promise you, when I figure out how to build myself a raft, or a rowboat, or...something, I will promise you, I will show us elves that things are totally awesome across this ocean."

Petal looks behind herself, taking notice of the other elves that she was friends with, carrying a couple baskets with them. Those elves stopped, noticing Petal with Leaf. This gave those elves looks that show that they are bothered by this. Petal looks back at Leaf.

"Leaf, this is embarrassing enough as it is." Petal said, in a harsh whisper, before finally speaking normally. "Please, may you just collect some fruit for the store with some of my companions? It's better that you follow the kings orders more than try to be focusing on things that...sadly, might never happen." Leaf looked at his crush with sadness in his eyes. Seeing he didn't want to disappoint her, he nods his head.

"Okay...I will..." Leaf said. "I'm...sorry I...sounded like a fool back there." Petal smiles, before picking up her basket again.

"It's quite alright, Leaf. But just try to keep the idea of going to the humans area to yourself, and not try to make yourself seem foolish in front of the other elves." Leaf nods his head, picking up his empty basket.

"I won't seem like a fool to them, Petal. Don't worry about it."

Petal nods her head, softly smiling at him, before heading off to her other friends. Leaf went off to the forest where all of the fruit trees were, as he was thinking about how would be for him to go and find the humans by himself. To be fair, he was a lone-wolf for a very long time, so this wouldn't bother him too much to try to get off of this island all by himself. Leaf kept these in his thoughts as he was walking over to the fruit tree area of the island.

'_Sometimes...I just wish I can just forget I was apart of this island...all these other elves are not even nice to me...especially when it comes to the ideas that I have._' Leaf said in his thoughts, as he walks through the gate of the part of the forest with the fruit trees. '_I wonder if there's really anyway to get off of this island..._'

* * *

Leaf looks around this part, seeing a couple of other elves, trying to collect whatever fruit they can find falling from the trees. Some were using magic, some were using regular tools, one elf was feeding a unicorn that just stumbled upon their spot. Leaf rolled his eyes, before walking over to one of the trees, ready to collect some apples.

One of the elves decided to approach the man, as he was busy collecting some fruit. "Well well well, if it isn't that elf boy that Petal is companions with." The elf said in a sarcastic tone. Leaf turns around, glaring at the elf standing behind him.

"Well, hello Pine-Cone..." Leaf mutters, glaring at the elf behind him. Pine-Cone has gray messy hair tied in a ponytail, almost similar to Leaf's hair, but wears a green long jacket with shoulder-pads, a dark green shirt underneath, black pants, and dark brown boots. "Seems you're helping out with collecting fruit too, huh? I honestly can't believe it..." Pine-Cone gave the elf a smirk, before shaking his head.

"Clearly, you haven't been here minutes ago, like you normally are. You mind telling me where you've been?"

"What is this, magic practice? Get lost, man."

"No, I rather hear what you have to say as an excuse this time. Trying to build a boat? Or a raft?" Leaf glared over to the elf once again.

"Okay, Pine-Cone...you're getting on my last nerve now. Either you back off, or I swear on the dirt we are standing on, I'm going to make you wish that you were..."

"LEAF!" One of the random nearby guards said.

Leaf looks over to the guard, noticing that he wasn't too happy with him, getting annoyed with Pine-Cone for mocking him. Leaf gives in, and just backs up from the other elf, not wanting to fight him. Leaf points that the guy though.

"Be glad that guy stopped us..." Leaf mutters.

"I believe I am." Pine-Cone said, walking with the rest of his friends back to another tree, leaving Leaf to collect some fruit by himself.

'_Yeah, totally got to get off of this island..._' Leaf said in his thoughts.

* * *

Meanwhile...

In one part of Canada...

It was that time again for him to go off to the ski resort that his aunt works at. James Louiston was driving his car, as his girlfriend was sitting in the front seat. It was going to be nice allowing his aunt to finally meet his girlfriend for once.

After he graduated Royal Academy, James's hair was a little shorter, but he wearing his black jacket around his waist, as well as a black t-shirt with a fist on it, and baggy dark blue pants. His girlfriend didn't change too much either. Jenny's hair was straight down to her shoulders, and in a dark blue beret, and her outfit was a dark gray jacket with a light blue t-shirt with a rocket on the front, and a dark brown skirt with gray leggings. The geeky goth kept looking out his window, trying to find the nearest town so that they can rest stop in, as night was coming close.

"Damn, where is the next town around here?" James asked, looking outside the window. "We got to be getting close to somewhere now." Jenny pulls her phone out, before looking up ahead.

"There should be a town up ahead." Jenny said, pointing forward.

James and Jenny looked forward, noticing the town right ahead of themselves. The geeky goth drives to this town, before pulling up in a random motel that was right nearby the entrance of this town. The two of them got out of the car, as they were looking around the town. The boy of the two of them looks over to his girlfriend as he points off to one of the many directions around the town.

"I'm going to find a gas station around this town. If we're going to go to my the ski resort my aunt works at, we're going to need more gas in this car." James told his girlfriend. "Since night is on the way now, I think we should stay here for the night." His girlfriend nods her head.

"I'll go find us a room around this motel here." Jenny said.

"Thanks." James looks forward, walking towards the sidewalk, heading to the sidewalk of this small town. The geeky goth taps his chin, looking around the section of the town he was in, wondering where the gas station is. "Alright...this might be awhile until I find some more gas for my car. Now where is that gas station?"

"Probably best to ask one of the people around town where the gas station is, babe!" Jenny shouts from the door she was heading towards. James looks behind himself, giving his girlfriend a thumbs up, before beginning to walk towards one of the places around this town.

The geeky goth walked, until he finally found somebody standing by the book store. James approaches the man who was standing by the bookstore, and then asks him for the location of the gas station. After he was given some directions, James went towards the spot where the man said it was located at.

About a couple moments later, James finally found the gas station in this town. "Well that was easy enough." James said. "Alright...now all I have to do is get some gas, and we'll be on our way." The goth walked into the building, closing the door behind him as he entered the small building.


	2. Chapter 2

The geeky goth went inside of the gas station in hopes of finding some more gas for his car. The geeky goth hears the song '_Everybody Wants to Rule the World_' by Tears of Fears playing on the radio inside this building as he entered. The goth decided to look around the shelves, trying to find a can of gas for his car to have. He found one, and headed over to the counter.

While looking through some of the things in his pockets, something fell out of his jacket pocket. It was a photo of himself, Goth Boy, and Yuki all together in the Junkyards break trailer. Standing back up from the ground, the clerk took notice of the photo in the geeky goths hands.

"Family of yours?" The clerk asked. "Brother and a sister?" James points at the photo, shaking his head to that question.

"Who these guys? No...uh..." The geeky goth looks down at the photo in his hands again, feeling a bit discouraged that somebody saw it in his hands. "Those two are friends of mine...eh, use to be friends of mine..."

"What happened?"

"Oh...you'd be...kind of finding this to be a funny story but, eh..." James hands the guy some money, before continuing to talk. "I'm not...completely a goth person, I'm a...geeky person, you know? I didn't belong in that group, like my girlfriend told me in the past, and...looking back at my Senior Year in high school, I probably should've listened to her. But I was still friends with Ray regardless of being out of that group." James chuckles, before the cashier hands him the gas he needed. "Sadly, the whole group I was with just...went out of control, and...after things gotten to be too much for me to handle, I decided to tell my girlfriend that she was right back in 2017, and I decided to tell Goth Boy I didn't want to hang out with them anymore."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I did tell him I wanted to still be friends with him, especially with what happened between him and..." James frowned remembering the day he heard about Goth Boy's exgirlfriend, Yuki. He gulps, before looking up at the guy in front of him. "Yuki...she...she committed suicide after her breakup with Goth Boy. But...hey, at least I know if I'm going to hang out with people, I should just...make sure that things won't go insane in the next few days. Thankfully, I'm still friends with Ray and Raven, even after everything that has happened. Ghostly and Violet too, who actually didn't blame me for siding with Goth Boy in that whole situation..." James sighed, before picking up the gas can in front of him. "...Well, me and my girlfriend are off on our own now. We're going off to a ski resort that my aunt, Professor Nova, works at."

"Eh, seems like things are going to go well for you up there." James scoffs, rolling his eyes hearing that.

"Just as long as...I don't end up stumbling upon Preston Winthrop...a total prick who tried to take over the ski resort and almost had a yeti under arrest..." The man raises an eyebrow hearing James say that. "It's a long story, sir...but if you need me, I got to go to the motel where my girlfriend is waiting for me at."

"Have fun going to that place, sir."

"Alright."

James exits the gas station and heads back over to the motel where Jenny was waiting for her boyfriend at. The geeky girl was leaning on the wall near one of the motel rooms, reading a comic book to herself, waiting for her boyfriend to arrive. She looks up from her comic book, noticing her boyfriend coming over to the motel building, carrying the can of gas.

The geeky boy places the gas into the car, and then throws the empty can into the garbage can nearby. Jenny places her comic book back into her jacket, walking over to the car her boyfriend drives. She stops aside her boyfriend, as he stood up.

"Well, looks like we're ready to go for tomorrow when we're on the road again, Jenny." James said, nodding his head at his car. "I believe in a few more days or so, I think we'll be able to make it to my aunt's job place before the end of August." James looks over to the girl he was dating, smiling at her. "You think so?" Jenny nods her head.

"Hopefully." Jenny said. "How much farther is this place anyway?"

"Until it starts snowing is when we're close. Keep in mind, Aunt Nova works at a ski-resort out in these mountains." James looks up at the sky, sighing at the fact that the sun was setting now. "Damn it, I forgot that night was coming soon. Guess we should stay here for the night, and continue driving tomorrow morning." Jenny nods her head.

"Couldn't agree more. Come on, I already got us rooms to sleep in. Both next to each other." James nods his head.

"Alright. Thanks for...doing that...I would've helped you out when I..."

"It's okay sweetie. I get enough money at the SPA Agency sitting behind the desk anyway. Don't worry about it." Jenny looks over to the sky again. "You know, since there's enough time, I guess you can make it up to me by getting us some dinner." James nods his head.

"Alright." The two smiled at each other, before heading off to the nearest restaurant to eat at.

* * *

Back at the Forest of the Elves...

Once all of the fruit was gathered, Leaf was just about ready to place his basket of fruit into the store that needed the fruit. He hands the fruit basket to the clerk at the counter, and then headed out of that store. Truthfully, with the fact that Pine-Cone had to bother him today, he really wanted this day to be over.

Along the way to his house, Leaf stops near a spot where he can see Petal talking with some of her friends. The crush of Leaf's was standing by one of the unicorns. The male elf waves at Petal, faking a smile at her. When Petal saw him waving for her attention, the other elves she was with took notice of him too.

"Oh no...not Leaf of all elves..." One of the two elf girls muttered. Petal steps ahead, holding up her hands in defense.

"Don't be bothered, my friends. I will talk to him." Petal said.

The female elf walks up to Leaf, slowly frowning as she approached him. She stood there, in front of him, crossing her arms with a look of sheer disappointment. No anger, since Petal is usually never furious, just disappointed. She took a deep sigh, before she finally said something to Leaf.

"One of the other elves said you almost got into a fight around the fruit trees." Petal said. Leaf frowned hearing that being said. "Leaf, tell me this isn't true."

"I wasn't the one who started it, just to let you know. Pine-Cone, then Acorn, sat there taunting me to no end." Leaf said. "I never used my magic on them whatsoever." Petal stood there silently, looking at him. She didn't say a word. "Petal...you know I would nothing to hurt you, nor the other elves. I just want to try to make these other elves happy somehow. But they are just not letting me." Petal finally spoke up, lowering her arms.

"Then just stay to what the king wants you to do. Then the other elves won't treat you so harshly." Leaf points out to the ocean.

"How can I just ignore the fact that there's more of the world out there than just this forest? Every item that washed up on our shore is awesome, and me and you, and every other elf, are missing the fun."

"Leaf...we talked about this..."

"Petal, I-I know. But I'm telling you the truth that I'm not crazy at all, and all I need is you to trust me, and try to give this idea the benefit of the doubt." Leaf homds Petal by the shoulders, staring at her eyes. "Please, Petal...I need you to trust me, because this is worth it."

The female elf just looks at the ocean, before looking at the elf who was needing her trust on what Leaf was saying. She then looks behind herself at the disapproving looks on her friends faces. She gulps, before looking at Leaf again.

"Leaf...I know that you're wanting me to give this the benefit of the doubt, and I'm happy that you have dreams of your own. It really makes you stand out from the rest of the elves here..." Petal said. "But...I can't be on your side on this one." Leaf lowers his hands, looking at Petal with a disappointed look in his eyes.

"But Petal..." Leaf softly said.

The female elf steps back from him, before turning her back on him, heading off to her other friends. Leaf felt disheartened, watching his own crush walk away from him as he stood there looking at her leave. She didn't even look behind herself at him.

This genuinely hurt Leafs feelings. He probably should've expected Petal to still not be on his side, considering that she wasn't into what he's into either. The elf places his hands into his pockets again, as he walked away from the girl he had a crush on. Petal looks behind herself, watching Leaf walk away.

"You did the right thing back there, Petal." One of the two female elves she was with said. "Somebody has to tell him that he should just give his hopes up on trying to get to those humans." Petal sighed, before looking at her friends.

"Friends, I really..." She closes her eyes, before opening them up, speaking again. "...I completely agree, but...Leaf's still a nice person regardless of his faults..."

"Oh Petal, you cant be saying you actually feel sympathy for him..."

"I can't help it, girls. But just know, there's a couple things that he does that I can't agree with him on, and I don't want to die on any sort of hill he places me on." Petal watches from her spot, seeing Leaf walking away from them still. Leaf stopped between two buildings, before walking into one of them. "I just hope he knows that this dream is something that isn't worth trying to do." The two other girls Petal was with nodded in agreement.

"Agreed." The two said.

* * *

Back with a Leaf, the elf boy walked into what appears to be a library. The elf didn't really have any interests in anything studious, but he needed some help to try to get to the human's area somehow. He needed some extra help.

Looking through the many books on the bookshelves, the male elf looks through the bunch, before stopping at one that might be able to help him out. It was a book of magic, which isn't really much of a surprise, but it was a book on using magic to get off of the island. This could be Leaf's way off of the Forest of the Elves. Considering that this book is in the far back of the store, the clerk here probably knew Leaf would've found it here.

Seeing he had no other choice, Leaf hides himself inside one of the nearest barrels, reading the book to himself. He opens it up, looking at how he could use magic to get off of the island. With the little light that was in this barrel, he read what the page said.

"So all I have to do to get off of this island...is to create a vortex that would be able to send me to the human's island area." Leaf said, reading silently to himself. "Seems easy enough. I already know enough of using magic to know how to make something like that."

Leaf then looks out of the barrel for a couple seconds, before pulling himself out of it. He places the book back onto the shelf, and than heads out of the store. Along the way to his house, he had a smile on his face as he was heading to his home.

"This is as simple as simple could get. The only problem with that vortex thing is that it can be unpredictable where it will transport me to." Leaf shrugs this off, thinking it's really not going to be any big deal whatsoever. "...Eh, it's not like I've failed a couple times trying to do a certain thing with magic. That reminds me, I got to apologize to that one elf for having that tree appear in front of his house." Leaf shook his head. "But not tonight. Right now, I need to get home so that I can finally do this. Oh, this is going to be good." Leaf walked off into the town, getting himself prepared to go into the humans area of the world.


	3. Chapter 3

With Petal, she was walking through the town, heading back to her home. She couldn't stop thinking about how she behaved towards Leaf when he was asking her for her encouragement and help back there. To her, his ideas were petty and ridiculous. But apart of her wished that she didn't turn her back on him when he was asking for her help. The female elf was hoping that tomorrow, Leaf will be in a better mood, and hopefully has his mind on something else instead.

The girl approached her house, ready to go in, and just stay home for the rest of the night. She steps in front of her door, crossing her arms, thinking about everything that Leaf did today.

'_Leaf really has it rough lately...I feel terrible for him to go through all of this..._' Petal said in her thoughts. '_I hope there's a way to make him feel better..._'

"Petal." A voice called from behind herself.

The female elf looks behind herself, startled by the voice coming from behind her. Her nerves called down after she found out it was only Pine-Cone. The male elf approached Petal, while he had his hands behind his back. With a bow of the head, he spoke aloud to her.

"Petal, I must apologize dearly if I came at such a wrong time." Pine-Cone said, before standing back up. "I believe that you were told that Leaf almost has a fight with me?" Petal sighed, before turning around.

"Pine-Cone, you know you shouldn't have tried to pull that stuff on Leaf. You know how sensitive he can be." Petal said, defending Leaf, despite how she behaved towards him earlier. "Either way, what brings you to my home? Is something the matter?"

"In a matter of fact, no...but considering the king needs a word with you, I have my suspicions."

The female elf was surprised hearing that. Usually when it comes to problems that have occurred throughout the island, she was always asked by the king to try to solve it. Most likely because she was the student who studied the most when it comes to using magic, and protecting nature. So the king has full trust in Petal to protect nature whenever there's trouble.

But now Petal is curious with what the king wants with her tomorrow. If it was about Leaf, she didn't really want to speak for him, considering the fight was between him and Pine-Cone, and she didn't want to be involved in that. She looks at the male elf in front of her, pointing at him, raising an eyebrow.

"What does the king want with me?" Petal asked.

"I'm not sure. But considering the guard who asked me sounded pretty irritated...I can only assume it is a sign he is NOT happy at the moment." Petal gulped hearing that said. "But hey, he likes you. I'm sure he's not going to be furious when you arrive at the castle." Petal nods her head, before looking out to the distance, towards Leafs house.

"I guess you're right...hey, I think I'm going to get some sleep now. I'll see you tomorrow morning." Petal told the male elf in front of her.

"Alright. You get some rest, Petal."

Pine-Cone starts to head back to his own house, while Petal stood there in front of her door. The female elf stood there, feeling sorry for her friend, hoping that he was alright for the rest of the night. She knows she should be by his side right now, but she didn't want the other elves around the village to be mocking her for trying to be friends with him. That she really didn't want.

Hoping that things will get better for him in the morning, Petal decided to head inside so that she can get some sleep. She had a feeling that Leaf will feel a little bit better after this entire day passes him. She's sure that he will move on the next day, and just be the same happy elf all over again. After her thoughts, she went inside her house.

* * *

Back with James...

The boy was laying on his bed, reading a comic book, as he was laying there on his bed. Jenny was in another room in this motel, as she wanted. Either way, it gave him enough time to read some comic books he brought along with him to get to the ski resort.

The geeky goth couldn't really helping remember everything that brought him to come out here. He closes his book, remembering the first time that Ray introduced him to Goth Boy and Yuki, especially the first time he met Winter Takara after she came back to Simport. So many memories that happened so fast for the geeky goth. The boy closes his comic book, placing it aside, and looking at the ceiling.

All he can really do at the moment was think to himself. Drifting off to sleep, James remembers a time where he felt like everything was a lot more simpler for him...

* * *

_In the summer of 2018, the geeky goth was sitting at the junkyard all by himself near the break trailer. He was sitting on top of the roof of said trailer, looking out to the other goths enjoying their time together. None of the other goths were really talking to him, considering that he wasn't really much of a goth himself. _

_Sitting there, the boy Ray approached the geeky goth, alongside his girlfriend, Raven. The two looked up, noticing the geeky goth sitting up there by himself. James looks down, noticing the goth couple below him. _

_"Hey! James!" Ray shouts from below the geek's feet. James hops down from the trailer, looking over to his two other friends. "You seem lonely over here. Is something wrong?" James shrugged his shoulders._

_"I don't know, Ray...we all finally graduated, and Goth Boy is still furious at the other goths." James said. "Well, more stressed than angry, really...but still...he really has got to learn when to lighten up." Ray nods his head._

_"Hey, Goth Boys been going through tough times for quite awhile now, James." Raven said. "I leave him alone whenever he gets angry at others." _

_"I...have been told that already...by that Blaine guy..." James frowns a little bit, looking away from his two friends, and placing his hands in his pockets. _

_Ray took notice in James's frustrated face. "Is something else wrong?" Ray asked. James sighed, nodding his head at the goth who was in front of him. _

_"I don't know, Ray...I promised me and Jenny that I could get us to hang out with you guys so that we can seem cool, and have bullies stop tormenting us. But...I end up hearing Goth Boy snapped at her for accidentally touching his poetry book, and he goes off within seconds..." James explains to him. He sighed, before crossing his arms. "I'm starting to question if asking you to join this group was really worth it. No offense...I'm actually happy and grateful you did...but now I feel like...Goth Boy is just...no different from them..." Ray frowned hearing his friend say that. The goth reaches out to pat James on the shoulder, hoping that will cheer him up._

_"I understand. Believe me, I've seen Goth Boy lose his anger on a couple people before." Ray said. "Look, I'll tell him to apologize to you and Jenny for him snapping at your girlfriend. Just because he was having a bad day today, doesn't mean that he should be treating your friend that was." Despite how he was feeling at the moment, James gave his friend a smile, and nodded his head._

_"Thanks Ray. I'm glad that you and Raven are on my side when it comes to problems like this." Ray lowers his arm, backing up from him._

_"Hey, if I was your friend, I doubt I would've helped you in here in the first place." _

_James steps off of the break trailer's steps, as Ray and Raven went off to go find Goth Boy. James watched them head off, as he was about to go off to find Violet to talk to her. _

_Only for along the way, he stumbles upon Yuki. The girl was holding his backpack in her hands, as she looked annoyed with him. The geeky goth points at the younger goth._

_"Yuki, what the hell? I was searching all over for that, how did you..." James was interrupted when Yuki pointed at the geeky goth's face. She spoke rather harshly._

_"Your boyfriend fell on Yuki's head!" Yuki said, in an annoyed tone. "Does Yuki need to bite you in the face?!" _

_"It was an accident. Ever heard of it?" James took the backpack from Yuki, placing it back onto himself. "Look, don't be a jerk and complain to me about something that I didn't have control over, alright? Goth Boy's already got me feeling stressed out due to his failed friendship with that Winter Takara girl, and he's yelling at my girlfriend about it for no reason." Yuki stared at the geeky goth, clearly not caring about what he is going through at the moment. Yuki waves a hand at him. _

_"Do you think Yuki is Goth Boy's mother? No! If Goth Boy is upset, and yelling at you, than shut up!" Yuki than points at the backpack that James was carrying. "Also, don't scare Yuki with your books with so many colors on them. Yuki has that same problem with the cookie shop she goes to!" The girl walks pass him, and heads off to go to find her boyfriend._

_"Their called comic books, thank you...and damn, I feel like both Goth Boy and Yuki are having crappy days, are they? Neither of them seem happy whenever I come up to them." James sighed, before he continued to walk off to find Violet around here. _

* * *

A couple moments of already being asleep, James woke up from that dream. He rubs the side of his head, feeling like his dream made him be apart of that moment in his life again. He looks over to the phone on the nightstand, looking at it to see what time it was.

"Damn, it's only four in the morning?" James asked himself, looking at his phone. "Crap...I feel like I'm going to be exhausted when I get to Aunt Nova's workplace." The geeky goth places the phone aside again, before closing his eyes again. "Eh, I better get to bed if I'm going to be able to drive to the ski resort. I don't want to end up tired while I'm over there. Still...that was a very weird dream..." James shrugged, before just drifting off to sleep once again. "...Oh well...I shouldn't really bother with a dream like that anyway..."

The geeky boy went back to bed. Outside the window, a bright colorful vortex was seen outside above the trees, right above where the road was located at. James didn't notice this, nor Jenny, as both were sleeping at the moment. Not really anyone saw this happening right there, as most of the people were busy doing other things.

But boy, it was a surprise that this part of the world was never going to forget...


	4. Chapter 4

It was another morning in the Forest of the Elves. Leaf was looking out to the sun in the distance, seeing that morning was already coming. He already got the vortex ready so that he can jump into it. The elf had a bag of items that he wanted to take with him in case he doesn't like some things the humans had.

"Let's see...I got enough fruit and some bread for myself. I got myself some clothes. I'm bring that one guitar I found on the shore. I wish I could bring that jukebox along with me, but sadly no..." Leaf said to himself. "Well...that looks like that's really all I have to bring to get off of this island now."

The elf looks behind himself, seeing the village he lived in for so long. He was finally going to leave this place for once in his life. The many elves who called him a fool for thinking that the humans weren't worth trusting, he was finally going to prove them all wrong by leaving. For him, he has no regrets leaving this village.

But then again, if he leaves, he will have to abandon Petal in the process. But to him, considering that she seems like she's on the elves side on this, he feels like all hope is lost for her to side with him. So to him, he thinks he's better off heading to the humans area, and let her go out with Pine-Cone or some other elf. Then again, to Leaf, knowing Petal, he probably never had a chance with her anyway.

The elf had the portal that he made, right there in front of his house. What he does remember the book warning him about is that these portals will disappear once he uses it. Not only that, but that despite sending him the right location, the portal's location will be sadly unpredictable. Then again, he doubt he should worry about that anyway. As long as it's not in a dangerous location like a cave or the ocean itself.

"Well...here goes!" Leaf said.

The elf ran straight for the portal in the ground, hopping right into it. The portal immediately disappeared just like the book said. None of the other elves knew about this portal opening up, and Leaf being the one who made it.

Leaf continued through the portal, until he finally found where the other side is leading him to. But to his surprise, it looks more like another forest more than a city or a neighborhood like he was hoping for. The elf screams as he flew out the portal, landing on the dirt ground below.

The elf looks up from the ground after he landed on the ground. He looks around, wondering if the portal did work or not. He stood up, brushing himself, looking around the spot he was at, hoping that it didn't land him back in the Forest of the Elves once again. By the looks of the trees, it didn't look like he was back on the island he lives on.

Walking down the path a little bit, Leaf looks down, noticing that this path was leading off to some sort of weird location, he stops to wonder where he's even going at this point. But when he finally walked far enough, he noticed that there was a road up ahead. The Forest of the Elves never had something like this back on that island, so it was actually pretty neat for Leaf to finally see something like this.

'_Oh wow...I knew that portal would work! To think I would've given my own hopes up!_' Leaf said in his thoughts. '_But...where even am I in the world right now? I never exactly figured that part out._'

The elf walks along the road, wondering where it even goes to. He kept his eyes down on this road, in hopes of it leading somewhere that would be a city or something. He will admit though, unlike the forest he lives in, it feels rather cold around this forest, Leaf doesn't know why.

'_Damn...it's a lot more colder here than I would've thought..._' Leaf said in his thoughts again. '_Oh right! I brought some things in a bag too! I completely forgot to pick it up before I started following this road._' Leaf ran off to go collect his bag again.

* * *

"James...wake up..."

The geeky goth's eyes slowly open to the sound of his girlfriends voice. Jenny stared down from her boyfriend, standing next to him, rubbing his arm, trying to wake him up. The girl stopped once she noticed her boyfriend waking up already, causing her to back up rom the bed.

"Jenny? Oh...sorry, I must've..." James said. "Damn it...I don't know why I woke up in the middle of the night, but...dang, I had one of the weirdest dreams ever. I was like, back at the junkyard. I believe it was back when you and Goth Boy had that one argument. But it felt so real...you know?" James stood up from his bed.

"Dreams can feel real sometimes. I keep dreaming that I'm about to marry Captain Argon from StarCrusier X whenever I sleep still." Jenny said.

"Still?"

"I know. But I can't help but have that still be the dreams I have whenever I am sleeping." Jenny giggles, before walking up to James. She places her hands on his chest, before looking up at him. "But don't worry, you're my boyfriend anyway. You still stopped Rob when me and I had that argument, and you confessed your true feelings for me. That's what I really like about you more than Rob Jarrett."

"Oh...hey, you shouldn't have been put in a relationship like that in the first place. Rob Jarrett was a total prick anyway, am I right?"

"Agreed. I really wish I dated you first though, and keep my relationship with you instead."

The two smiled at each other, before kissing each other on the lips. They made out for a couple moments, before they stopped, ready to actually go off to the ski resort. It wasn't really a good time to make out while they were suppose to go off to the location where they were going to.

"Uh...I think we should continue with heading off to Aunt Nova's place." James said, nervously. "We can continue our kiss when we are finally at the ski-resort." Jenny giggles, before stepping back from the boy.

"Good idea." Jenny said.

The two of them headed over to their car, and got inside of it. James started the car up, as Jenny was in the other seat to her boyfriend's right. The goth backed up from the spot he was parked in, heading out of the parking lot. The boy drove the car straight to the forest, continuing their journey off to through Canada.

* * *

About a couple moments later...

James during the car ride told his girlfriend about his dream about himself at the junkyard. Jenny was quite surprised to hear that her boyfriend went through a dream like that, as she remembered that day as well as her. She does remember Goth Boy treating her like garbage when she approached the junkyard one time.

When Jenny was told this, she sat there, looking forward at the street in front of them. She looks over to her boyfriend after hearing out what happened in his dream. "Listen, I don't know what kind of dream you had last night, but all I can tell you is that you shouldn't be thinking too deep into it." Jenny told him. James looks over to his girlfriend, shrugging his shoulders.

"I don't know, Jenny. It seemed just...like an insane dream to have last night, you know?" James said to his girlfriend. Jenny shrugged her shoulders, before finally speaking.

"I don't know. All I can really assume that you had the dream you had is that after Yuki passed away and everything went to shit in that goth group, you probably miss her as much as the rest of her friends. But then again, I'm just assuming that is the case." Jenny shrugs her shoulders, before looking over to the window to her right. "Besides, I'm sure that's really the case." James nods his head.

"Yeah...life really...hasn't been the same after I left the goth group, and everything went to hell immediately after." The geeky goth smirked, before looking over to the window ahead of himself. "Tell you, I'm actually glad I was out of town when the junkyard got destroyed...I don't know how I would've made it through a place like the prison after something that my friends did." Jenny nods her head.

"Hey, I would've gotten you out of there, because I know you, and I still work for the SPA Agency." Jenny smiled, as James looks over to her. "Besides, I told Agent Walker all about you, and I know for a fact that he would..."

The geeky girl was immediately caught off-guard at the sight of Leaf beginning to walk across the street, carrying his bag of items. Leaf takes notice of the car, then ran back to the path he was on before. This shocked the two geeks, causing them to stop the heir car at the sight of Leaf running off into the forest.

James immediately stops the car. Once they were parked, the two turned their heads towards the direction of the part of the forest where Leaf ran into. Both geeks sat there with shocked looks on their faces, wondering who that even was who was even out here. Leaf looks out from behind one of the trees, taking notice of the car that just pulled up near the side of the street he was just on.

'_Wow, actual humans. This is actually the only time in my life where I'm the closest to a human._' Leaf said in his thoughts. '_Sure hope they won't be assholes like the elves back in my forest._'

Leaf finally came out from behind the tree, as Janes and Jenny came out of the car. James went in front of his girlfriend, hoping that Leaf wasn't a hostile person to be around. Leaf stopped a couple steps away from the geeky goth, holding up his hands, hoping the two weren't hostile at him.

"Hey! The hell was that about sir?!" James shouts, walking up to the elf. "You nearly had me and my girlfriend scared out of our minds because of you!" Lead stood there, looking at the two of them, almost smiling at the sight of both of them. This got James to feel a little uncomfortable. "What are you smiling about?" Leaf points at the boy in front of himself.

"You're a human." Leaf said, smiling at him. James was even more confused now.

"I...beg your pardon..."

"You and your girlfriend there...you two are human." James looks behind himself at his own girlfriend feeling rather confused, before Leaf actually continued to talk. "Look, I feel like you two are going to not believe me when I say this, but allow me to do so. So...um...my name is Leaf. I have just arrived in your area, and this is going to sound crazy, but I'm an elf." James and Jenny narrowed their eyes, staring at Leaf like he was crazy. "What?! It's true!!" Leaf said, finding him unbelievable is insane. "I have magic and everything!"

"A magical elf? Can you show us this magic?" Jenny asked.

"Well, the elf king wouldn't be too happy hearing that I'm using magic that's not used for work..."

"Then we're out of here." James said, not believing Leaf either. "Besides, me and my girlfriend have to get somewhere anyway. I don't think we really have time to stand around and try to listen to some stranger that..."

"Hold on! At least let me come with you guys! I might not show you any sort of proof that I'm an elf, but I need to go...somewhere around...wherever this place is..."

"We're in Canada." Jenny said for Leaf.

"Right! So...I need a ride to the nearest place that I can try to live out the rest of my days at." Leaf walks over to the car, leaning on the back door. "I'll explain how and why I am here along the way if you want." James and Jenny walked back to their seats, ready to get in and drive off.

"Fine. If you really say so, then join along with us." James said. "Besides, being a fool or not, I am not going to act like a jerk I know and leave you here. Me and Jenny are better than that anyway." Leaf smiled, before getting into the back of the car. "Anyways, it's...really a long story who I am talking about, but really, if you were in my shoes, you'd hate him too." Leaf cringed hearing that.

"Something tells me I don't want to know who you are talking about. He sounds like a total asshole the way you're talking." James nods his head, before facing forward.

"Alright. Now let's get to Aunt Nova's place already."


	5. Chapter 5

Back at the Forest of the Elves...

Petal got herself ready so that she can meet up with the king of the elves. It's been awhile since she actually talked with the king, so this felt a little intense for her. She didn't know what he really wanted from her, which made her even more nervous to wonder why he needs her.

But before she could go up to the castle, she decided to go to Leaf's house so that she can try to apologize for her actions the night before. It was only right for her to do so. The elf went off to her companion's house, in hopes of trying to make amends. He might not listen to her, but still, it was only right for her to do this.

The female elf walks up to the front door of Leafs house. She knocks on the door, and waits for the boy to answer her. There was no response from Leaf after a couple seconds have passed. She tried again, only for nothing to still happen. Petal even tried to shout out Leaf's name as she was still near his door. Even calling his name didn't do anything. She didn't know if he was asleep, or just ignoring her. But regardless of what even was the issue on Leaf's end in this situation, Petal still decided to speak, hoping that Leaf would hear her.

"Leaf...I came here because...last night, I was..." Petal stopped herself in her own words, feeling like Leaf wasn't going to believe that she really does care about him deep down. She sighed, feeling like this was a bit hopeless. "Leaf, I just want to say that I was sorry before, and I really want to make it up to you. But something you got to know is that we don't know anything about these humans, or what they do, or...anything else for that matter...but I want you to know that me and the others only want what's right for our village, and we don't want one of us to...damage that. You know how the king is, and...we really got to look after his rules when it comes to the safety of the other elves, including nature." Petal looks down to the ground, before placing a hand on the door. "But...either way, if you...just take one step at a time, I'm sure the other elves will allow you to hang out with them, and not be hostile towards you. I still think you're a good person, Leaf...and I really want to be friends with you. Just...don't think I'm not your friend, because truthfully, I am your friend." Petal backs up from the door, before sighing. "...I just...hope that we can talk soon, so that we can talk this out a little bit more, okay?"

Still, there was nothing but silence. To Petal, this should probably be the moment to finally go off to the castle, since it seems like Leaf is still not wanting to talk to her about anything at the moment. She felt like she had this coming, considering that she did side against him yesterday, and other days, feeling like he's being an embarrassment.

But she hopes that he can move past it one day...

* * *

The girl decided to go off the to the castle...

Feeling worried with what the king wants from her, Petal stood there in front of the castle's doors, looking up at the building. It was almost intense for her to stand there, looking at this building. She didn't know if he was angry, or was needing a word with her about something, but all Petal knew was that she was pretty much a good student in the elf school, so she doubt she did anything wrong recently. The guards allowed the elf to come into the castle.

Inside, Petal walks forward, heading straight to the room with the throne in it. She looks up, taking notice of the elf king, sitting on his throne, looking at the female elf as she had finally arrived at the castle to talk to him. She kneels down onto one knee, looking up at the king, who was staring at her without a single word being said from either elf.

Looking up from the ground, Petal noticed the king wasn't really saying anything to her. She was surely worried now, wondering if he was furious or not. Deciding to finally stop the silence that was around the throne room, Petal was the first one to speak.

"What may I help you with?" Petal asked the king of the elves.

"Petal...I am most pleased with your arrival." The king said, voice clearly raspy as he spoke. "As Pine-Cone probably mentioned to you, I do have a thing to hand to you. It is most important for you to have." Petal stared at the king.

"What shall it be?"

The king picks up cane from the side of the throne, attempting to stand up. He walks over to the table that was to the right of the room. Petal stood up from the ground, wondering what the king wanted to give her. The king picks up what appears to be some sort of gem that was on the table.

"I fear that I am almost at my time, Petal." The king said. "However, these elves need somebody to lead them into protecting nature for our forest. Due to your knowledge of nature, and your devotion to defend it, regardless of what costs awaits you, I am relying on you to gain the throne when I pass." The king walks over to the female elf, as Petal looked at him with worry in her eyes. "Petal, I believe your parents have taught you well enough for a moment like this."

"I-I guess I am." Petal said. "But...king, I never your time would be..." The king reaches out to rub a hand on Petal's cheek, comforting her before she becomes anymore sad by this news.

"Don't be too discouraged, dear girl. I put all of my trust in you when you protect nature for everyone here." The king hands the girl the gem that he was holding in his hands. "Now keep this gem in your hands. I promise you, I've been keeping this for you ever since I seen you were born." Petal smiled, before looking at the king.

"Thank you, grandfather...I...I appreciate it." Petal said. "I don't...I really don't know how the kingdom will be the same when you..." Petal kept herself together as she attempted to say her next words. "...When you pass on..."

It was silent between the two of them. Neither of them really knew what to even say next, knowing what was going to happen later on for the elves. Petal silently placed the gem into her bag, keeping it in safe keeping for the king. The king slowly went back to his throne, placing his cane to the side of the throne once he sat down. He stared at his grand-daughter, feeling confident that she has this all under control.

Petal turns her direction towards the king once again, taking a deep breath, before asking him one more thing, before leaving the castle to head home. "Is that all we will be talking about, grandfather?" Petal asked him. The king nods his head, silently.

"You may leave now, Petal." The king said, bowing his head. "And don't worry too greatly about leading the elves when it comes to protecting nature. If I know my granddaughter more than anyone on this island, I know that you're ready to do this." Petal looks down at the bag on her belt, feeling a bit nervous about this, before nodding silently.

"Then I shall protect nature, for us elves, and for the balance of nature. Anything for you, grandfather. I will keep this promise to you." The king gave Petal a soft smile.

"That's my granddaughter."

Without another word, Petal headed out of the castle, ready to go out back to her house. The king continued to smile, knowing that his trust towards Petal to defend nature won't be a mistake. He knew that he is doing the right thing by doing this.

* * *

Back with Leaf...

The three were still driving through the forest, trying to get to the ski-resort that James and Jenny were going to. Leaf was sitting in the back, waiting for the three of them to get to this ski-resort building that they were talking about. But really, the boy was looking around the car, feeling like it's kind of nice to see this kind of thing over here, knowing that it's not apart of the Forest of the Elves. To him, this was pretty cool.

Leaf peeks out from behind the seats, noticing the radio that was in the car. He taps his chin, wanting to listen to rock music. He loves rock music thanks to the jukebox that arrived on the shoreline of the island. The other elves refused to have it around their houses, not knowing what it does, so Leaf was lucky enough to keep it.

The elf leans forward, trying to reach for the radio, only for James to take notice of him, trying to climb over the chairs. "Uh...what do you think you're doing?" James asked him, raising an eyebrow at the elf.

"Is...that a radio?" Leaf asked him. James was still confused.

"Uh...yeah, why?"

"I'm reaching over so I can turn it on."

"Well...okay...if you really say so." James then looks behind himself, raising an eyebrow, looking at the elf. "If you're really an elf, how do you know what a radio is?" Leaf smirked, looking at the geeky goth.

"Let's just say a cruise ship accidentally dropped their jukebox into the ocean, and it went onto the shore, closest to my house." Leaf explains to him. "After that, I listen to a lot of rock music." The elf points forward, smiling at him. "Well don't just sit there, glaring at me, turn the radio on!" James looks over to Jenny, before nodding his head.

"Alright, alright...if you say so, dude..."

James turns the radio. The song '_Basket Case_' by Green Day started to play on the radio as they continued to drive through the forest. Leaf started to nod his head to the song, as he looks over to Jenny. He points at the radio as the song continued to play.

"Never heard of these guys." Leaf said. "Who are they?"

"Green Day? They are a band that James listens to...thanks to the goths, I mean. He listens to other bands, like Three Days Grace, Paramore, Fall Out Boy, many bands like that, you know?" Jenny told him. "I do listen to some bands like too, but I mostly don't listen to music." Leaf frowned hearing that.

"Never heard of them either. Damn, you humans have been doing a lot while us elves were still in that forest, huh?" Leaf chuckles a little bit. "There's probably a lot of things I still don't know." James looks behind himself, looking at Leaf.

"Just sit back down and wait until we get to the ski-resort." James told him. "Besides...hopefully, we should be...close to there...hopefully..."

Leaf sat back down, nodding his head. He looks out the window, noticing snow coming out of the sky. James and Jenny took notice of this as well, as they were driving along the road. James smiled, nodding his head.

"Yep, we're getting close to the building now." Jenny said. James nods his head.

"Yep, we're almost there." James said.

"Uh...how cold is it going to be once I get out of this car, because I was NOT expecting the weather here to be at all freezing." Leaf said, pointing forward. James and Jenny frowned, looking behind themselves at the elf behind them. "To be fair, I probably should've been told this before we got to this place." James rolled his eyes, looking forward, still driving towards the ski-resort.


	6. Chapter 6

The three arrived at the ski-resort that James was talking about before. It was a small building with a lot of windows that was almost taking a majority of the front wall of the resort building. There was also a ski-lift in the distance, as there was also a parking lot in the front of the building.

Which, James was actually pulling his car up to one of the parking spaces. The geeky goth parks his car into one of the spaces, and stops it. Once he stops his car, he, Jenny, and Leaf all get out of the car, and started to make their way towards the resort building. They got onto the dirt path, as Leaf was standing to the right of James, and Jenny was standing to his left.

"Pretty cool of us to finally get here." Leaf said. "But is Canada always this cold?" James looks up at the sky, before looking over to the elf.

"It's a ski-resort. It's always suppose to be snowing where it's at." James said.

"Tell you, of all weather, I did not hear anything about what those other elves were talking...when it came to the...c-cold..." Leaf said, beginning to feel cold by the weather around here. James stops walking, until he stared at Leaf with concern. "Yeah, I skip class a lot back when I still learning how to use magic. It's a long story there, you know?" James cringed, before walking over to the elf.

"Yeah, we really should get you inside now." Leaf nods his head, raising an eyebrow at the goth man he was with.

"You think? Let's get inside already."

The three of them entered the ski-resort. The geeky goth looks around the place, seeing that it was just how he remembers it back when he was a kid. Granted, he wasn't a big fan of the cold, but his aunt was always the closest of his relatives. The boy walks a few steps forward, wondering if his aunt was here or not, but just as he turned towards the kitchen, he found her.

The woman who works here, Professor Nova, walked out of the kitchen, holding a tray of cups on it. The boy's aunt has short white hair with a headband with some planets on it, as she also worked at an observatory whenever she was at Simport. She also wore glasses, with a brown coat, a dark blue long skirt with stars on it, and purple heels. The woman places the tray down on a nearby table, as James, Jenny, and Leaf stood there, looking at the woman there. The older woman looks over to the three who were here, and smiled.

"James, dear, you're finally here." Nova said, happily. James smiled back at her.

"Wouldn't miss being here for the world, Aunt Nova." James said, walking up to his aunt. The two hugged, as they smiled standing there. Nova opens her eyes, noticing Jenny and Leaf there too. The hug stopped, as she walked over to Jenny.

"Oh, and you brought your girlfriend here too. You must be Jenny." The geeky girl nodded her head. "Oh, James has said a lot about you to me." The geeky goth blushes, looking towards the door. Jenny giggles, looking at her boyfriend.

"Hopefully, only good things were said." Jenny said.

"Oh, of course he only said good things about you. You are probably one of the best girls he could get." Nova looks over to Leaf who was standing there, minding his own business. "Oh well...who might you be? James never said anything about somebody like you."

"Me? Well..." Leaf said. "Let me be blunt here, since...your nephew didn't believe me the first time...I'm an elf, and I have magic." Leaf said. "Did I mention your nephew doesn't believe me when I said I am actually an elf." The geeky goth just rolled his eyes, looking away from Leaf, before looking at him again.

"If you really are a magical elf, why don't you just show the magic, instead of keeping it to yourself." James said. "That's the only way I can really say you're telling me and my friends the truth. If not, I can't really say I believe you."

Leaf looks at his hands for a few seconds, before looking at the geeky goth in front of him. Thinking back to when he told James that the king wouldn't like him using magic outside of the Forest of the Elves, he realized that he might not have anything to lose if he really shows him his elf magic, since none of the other elves are here.

The elf walks over to the center of the room, making the geeky goth confused. He held up both of his hands, closing his eyes in the process. What really caught the others off-guard was that Leaf's hands started to glow purple. James's eyes widen in shock at this sight, as Leaf's magic was starting to make the other furniture around the ski-resort float into the air. James, Jenny, and Nova looked around, finding this sight even more bizarre than it already was. At least in James's eyes, he owes Leaf an apology for not believing his words earlier.

"Wow...I-I can't believe what I'm seeing..." James said, nearly breathless at what was happening.

Once he heard that being said, Leaf opens his eyes, giving the geek a smirk. He lowers everything in the room back down to their correct spots, as James was still speechless at this. Jenny nor Professor Nova could even say anything at this, how shocked they were. The elf brushes one part of his jacket, smiling at this, before walking over to James.

"I believe that...a certain apology is...needed." Leaf said, giving the boy a smirk. James looks over to Leaf, blinking a couple times, before finally speaking.

"I...I'm sorry..." James said, rather speechless still. The elf shrugged his shoulders, before placing his hands in his shoulders.

"You know, it's cool." The elf then pats the geeky goth on the arm. "By the way, if it was the other way around, I wouldn't have believe you at first either." Leaf then looks over to the two girls behind him. "So, now that we're here? Now what?"

"Well, James came here to let me meet Jenny, and to enjoy some time together." Nova said. "When I heard he moved out of his parents house after he graduated, I heard he and Jenny were planning college. Now I want to ask my nephew, how is college going?" James shrugged his shoulders as the group moved their conversation over to the sitting area of the resort building.

"Um...I've been doing a lot of thinking about what job I really wanted. I mean, I have been getting myself a summer job at one of the goth stores during 2018, and now that it's...well, a year later...I don't know, really." James said, sitting down on one of the couches. "Truthfully, I've been hoping to work at the observatory if...that's alright with you, Aunt Nova? Since you're always up here in this ski-resort anyway." Nova smiled, before sitting down on one of the two chairs in the sitting area.

"Oh, you have not changed at all when you graduated, James...always looking out of me and my workplaces." James smiled, nodding his head at his aunt's words. "If you really want to work there, than you could, dear. I worry that...he would find a way to get rid of it, like he almost did with this building."

The group fell silent hearing those words. As Leaf was a bit confused by those words, he broke the silence. "Uh...who are we talking about here?" Leaf asked, raising an eyebrow.

"They are talking about a guy that...almost tried to get a yeti here arrested..." Jenny said. "His name is Preston Winthrop...he is a guy who works at a water bottle factory, and he almost got Paul arrested. Ever since James heard about what Preston did, he and him ended up hating each other. Or...James hates him, completely."

"Tell me about it, the dude is a prick." James says, rolling his eyes.

"But we don't need to worry about him. That was only ten years ago when he did all of that." Professor Nova said, trying to comfort her nephew. "I haven't heard from the boy in quite awhile, so I heavily doubt he is going to cause some sort of trouble once again." James sighed.

"I sure hope so..."

* * *

Meanwhile...

A man was driving his car, through the forest, just like James was doing. He has blonde hair, with a white dress shirt, with a green and brown vest over it. He also wore brown dress pants, with dark brown shoes.

This is Preston Winthrop. Somebody that James actually hates. It's true that their rivalry started because of the fact that Preston attempted to ruin James's aunts life by going after the ski-resort, and have the local yeti arrested. After all of that, James never forgave Preston for his actions. The blonde understood why James hated him, but he doesn't really care, since he has other friends already to be talking to rather than James anyway.

He parks his car, pulling up next to a train station. A girl was getting off of the train. The girl has pink messy hair with bunny ears on her head, a couple freckles, and a pink dress with a white belt.

This is Beebee, Preston's girlfriend. A girl who usually acts like she's the princess of the bunnies around the forests. Preston thinks that's cute, but to James, he just found her annoying. Also, considering that she's on Preston's side when it came to their past, James doesn't like Beebee either.

"Prezzy-Weezy, you've arrived to pick me up!" Beebee said, smiling at her boyfriend. The man nods, before straightening up his own collar.

"Of course, anything for you, my dear." The prep said, mid-Atlantic accent heard in his voice. "It's a pleasure to have you back in this town. The weather is much more colder than when you came back from the state of Idaho to go see how the bunnies are doing over there."

"They are enjoying carrots, lettuce, and many other veggies over there. So they are doing very fine over there." The girl in pink walks a little closer to her boyfriend, leaning her head to the right, looking at him. "So...now that I am back with you, here in this small town, what shall we be doing here?"

Preston smirked, before looking off to the distance. He looks over to his girlfriend, hiding his smirk by changing it to a pleasant smile. He spoke. "Well, my dear, it just so happens that I have took notice of a certain friend of ours who was just passing by this town. As the house I live in is only the next town that's south, I believe that it's only fair we go north to give our friends a visit." Beebee smiled a little bit.

"Is it more bunny friends?" Preston looked at her confused, before blinking a couple times.

"Yes, we're going to visit a couple rabbits, also a couple...NOT THEM, I'M TALKING ABOUT..." Preston lowers his voice, before holding up both of his hands. "...James Louiston, the nephew of Professor Nova, who works at the ski-resort." The girl nods her head, before finally realizing who they are talking about.

"Oh, now I know who you are are talking about."

"Yes, yes, well...me and you are going to give him and his aunt a visit. It's been awhile since we've had him involved in our lives, now hasn't it?" Beebee nods her head, smiling at his question. "Let's make our way to the ski-resort, my dear...it's about time we meet him again." The two got into the nearby car, and they drove off to the ski-resort.


	7. Chapter 7

Back at the Forest of the Elves...

Petal was looking at the gem in her hands as she was passing by other elves in the village. She still couldn't believe that the king of the elves was actually going to be gone more sooner than she thought. She was happy that he was to hand her this gem to give her all the luck she needs, but she was still rather distressed by the news regardless. She just wanted to go home now.

Along the way to her own house, Petal places her gem into her bag as she was walking through the village back to her house. She walked until she heard walking behind her. She turns around, noticing that Pine-Cone was walking towards her to see what had happened at the castle.

"Petal, I was needing to know how the conversation went between you and the king. What did he need you for?" Pine-Cone asked her. Petal pulls out the gem that the king handed over to her.

"He wanted to give me this." Petal said, showing him the gem. "The king wanted to give me this since he told me he's relying his trust in me to protect nature after he has passed away..." Petal's eyes started to water. "...He informed me that he was...going to be gone in a couple more days..."

"He is?" Pine-Cone reaches out to rub Petal's arm. "Petal, I'm sorry to hear about what is going to happen to the king. This is devastating for all of us."

"This hurts me the most since...he pretty much trusts me the most out of all of the elves here."

"Why's that?"

"Because...well...I'm his granddaughter..."

"Wait? When were you going to tell us this?"

"I...was going to tell the other elves in my class, but I didn't think any of them would believe me when I tell them this...so I kept it to myself when my mother and father told me to learn how to use magic..." Petal sighed, before backing up from Pine-Cone. "I guess considering he was old to begin with when I was born, I feel like things...just have to happen...and I can't stop that from happening..."

"Well...I'm sorry to hear. Do...you want me to...walk you home?"

Petal stood there silently. She looks out to the distance, seeing Leafs house over by the ocean. She did like Pine-Cone, since despite he can be arrogant at times, he truly is a gentleman. But she still wish that Leaf was the one who ended up finding her instead. With a sigh, she looks back over to the elf who was comforting her, and held his hand.

"I appreciate you asking me for your help, but...I feel like I need to be alone right now." Petal bows her head, smiling. "I do thank you for asking if I was okay, Pine-Cone." Pine-Cone bows back.

"Of course, Petal. Of course." Pine-Cone said.

The female elf walked off towards the house that she lives in. She places her forehead on the door, feeling like she was truly going to lose her grandfather. She was happy enough to become the next elf to get to the throne and protect nature, but at the same time, she felt like this wish she wanted wasn't worth losing her grandfather over.

The elf opens the door to her house, where her mother and father were actually out in the marketplace at the moment, trying to find some food to make for their dinner. Petal went over to the window, looking outside of it, holding the gem in her hands as she was thinking about protecting nature to herself. She felt confident to protect nature with all of her might, but at the same time, she was more worried than ever.

'_So this gem is what helps me protect nature? I never heard my grandfather talk about this in, at least, 14,230 years ago, along with the Temple of the Forest._' Petal said in her thoughts.

She then looks out the window, taking notice of one of the flowers outside. She was hesitate to, but she felt like checking out what the gem does. Petal held her hands together, holding the gem in her hands, closing her eyes.

The sun shines on the gem, reflecting onto it, shining onto the flower. Once the sunlight hits the flower, the plant started to grow slowly into an even bigger flower. More petals came out of the top of it, causing the female elf to be surprised by what the gem did. She looks at it, and then nods her head.

"It helped that flower grow. I guess this gem really can have some uses after all." Petal said, smiling to herself. She then frowns, placing the gem into her pocket. "I just hope that my grandfather looks down on me when I finally protect nature for these other elves."

* * *

Back with Leaf...

"Man...an actual elf...I just can't believe that something like this is real." James said softly.

The two boys were walking out into the snowy area of the ski-resort. Leaf was dressed a little more so that he doesn't end up feeling cold outside. He had another green heavily jacket, and gloves. James's jacket was zipped up, and he had a dark blue beanie on his head.

The two were outside, on the walkway, talking to themselves, as Jenny was trying to unpack her things inside the building, and his aunt was making something in the kitchen for their dinner. James and Leaf decided to go outside, since the elf wanted to try to get use to the cold while they were up in this place for awhile. The two were pretty much just having a conversation outside.

"It's pretty cool, I'm not going to lie." Leaf said. "But really, dude, you probably should've just listen to me back when I was telling you that I was an actual elf, you know? I don't know why you'd go and think I'm lying to you." James shrugs.

"Well, considering that Jenny actually saw the Nightmare Realm, I guess I should've took your words to thought." James said. Leaf raises an eyebrow.

"What? You believe in some sort of dimension of nightmares, but not me?!" James shrugs his shoulders, finding this to be a little bit awkward the more he thinks about it.

"I...did see it when Jenny actually told me...and everyone in my town thought it was only a myth, until some woman named Evelyn Gray came out of it. Like I said, it was all a myth until Jenny's agent friends saved her." James shrugged his shoulders, before leaning on the rails nearby. "Sorry about not believing you about you being an elf."

"It's totally fine. You already apologize anyway, no need to do that again."

The two boys stood there, enjoying the cold, until the sound of a car pulling up in the parking lot nearby. James and Leaf looked over to the parking lot, seeing that a car was pulling up next to James's car. The geeky goth frowned seeing this car, as he knew what this car from anywhere.

Preston and Beebee came out of the car, looking over to the ski-resort. The couple walked up to the front door, unaware of the two boys that were standing on the walkway, watching them enter the building. James had a look of disgust on his face, as Leaf took notice of it. He looks over to his new friend, pointing forward at the two doors.

"I'm...guessing that's the Preston guy you're talking about, right?" Leaf asked him.

"Yep. That's him alright." James said, clearly angry by the prep being here. "I can only assume he's here to cause more trouble like last time. I bet he's here to try that bullshit he pulled years ago, once again." Leaf cringed at the thought of that.

"I can't imagine he's really here for anything too good than."

"Believe me, knowing me, Preston is truly up to no good. Not back than, not ever."

"Well what are we doing out here for? Let's go confront this guy than."

"Leaf, it's not that simple. Preston is always somebody who is a step ahead of me whenever he is ready to cause some sort of trouble. So I doubt that he..."

"Nova, are you here?!" Preston shouts from inside the building.

"Don't you think we should go in there and kick his ass now? He's now shouting for your aunt to come out." Leaf whispers, as James looks over to the elf, finding that idea to be pretty much a bad idea.

"Are you crazy? He's going to kick MY ass if we run in there and try anything." James whispers back to him.

"Well now what?!" James looks over to the doors, cringing at the fact that Preston was seriously here right now, making things difficult for himself, Jenny, and now Leaf. He didn't want to deal with him again.

* * *

Inside the ski-resort building, Preston and Beebee were standing there, waiting for Professor Nova to come out and notice that they were here now. Once the older woman came out of the kitchen, she took notice of the couple that was standing in the sitting area of the building. Preston smiled at her, as Beebee was looking around, not really looking at anything specific.

"Long time no see, Nova." Preston said, placing his hands in his coat pockets. "I must say, it's been awhile, now hasn't it?" Nova narrows her eyes at the boy who was here, she placed down the bowls of soup down on a nearby table, before walking over to the boy.

"Preston, it has been awhile since we've spoke." Nova said, coldly to him. "What are you doing here?"

"No need to be hostile towards me, Nova. I have came here to not start trouble. Me and my...girlfriend have decided to stop by, to see how things are going over here, considering that it has, indeed been awhile since the last time we have encountered. Hopefully, I am not interrupting you at a bad time." The boy gives the older woman a bow, before Nova crossed her arms, glaring at him.

"My nephew came here to visit me for the night. He wanted me to meet his girlfriend, Jenny. All was going to plan, until you and Beebee have arrived here to...visit." Preston looks over to Beebee who was scratching the side of her head, confused.

"So...is your nephew here right now? I don't see him anywhere." Beebee asked.

"He should be outside somewhere with...his girlfriend. I don't think you're really going to meet him today, nor tomorrow, as he will be leaving tomorrow morning."

Preston looks over to the window, seeing James was nowhere outside. Then again, James could be literately off in the mountains, probably visiting Paul the yeti, or lost. The boy didn't really care which would be the more logical answer to that is, but either way, he continued to talk to the goth's aunt. He was about to speak again, before he heard the sound of walking coming from upstairs.

The boy looks up, taking a notice of Jenny walking over to the stairs. Jenny looks over to the downstairs area, finally noticing Preston and Beebee were both downstairs. She gasps, as she stared at the boy with shock in her eyes. Preston gave her a smirk, before looking down at Professor Nova in front of him.

"He's with your girlfriend, correct?" Preston asked her. "I do believe that by 'outside', you mean on the balcony or so?"

"Actually, I'm right behind you." James said, glaring at the boy. Leaf stood by James's side, being ready to fight this guy if he attempts anything. Preston turns around, noticing the two boys behind him.

"Ah, it's you James...and..." Preston looks over to Leaf, frowning at the sight of him. "...I'm sorry, I don't believe we've met." Leaf balled a fist, glaring at the man in front of him.

"You don't need to know who I am." Leaf said, in a threatening tone.

"Honestly, I think I do. We've never met." Leaf lowers his glare, before speaking again.

"You...got a point there..."

"Agreed. Now who are you?"

"My name is Leaf. I'm..."

Leaf stops himself, unsure with what to tell this guy. By the way he was, no way did Leaf want to tell this Preston guy he was an elf with actual magic. Tugging on his jacket collar, Leaf tried to think of what to even say to him, before finally speaking.

"I-I'm...somebody that James went to school with. An old friend." Leaf said, looking around, as Beebee walks up to him. "I'm sorry, who are you now?"

"Hi there, my name is Beebee. I'm Preston's girlfriend." Beebee said, as the girl leans her head to the left. "I don't think James ever mentioned you back there when he was in Royal Academy, or middle school." Beebee was a little dumbfounded. "Did you ever talk about your friends, James? Because from what I remember, you said that Ray guy was your friend."

"Well, Ray and Raven have to get ready for their own wedding that they are preparing for in December...so...Ray could come with me, sorry." James said. "So, now...Leaf has came with me." James then walks up to Preston, glaring at him. "But...enough about Leaf, what the hell brings you here to the ski-resort. If you haven't noticed, me and you are not friends at all, especially not you and my aunt."

"Still bitter about the past, eh dear boy?" Preston asked him. "Me and my girlfriend were only coming to visit your aunt."

"Yeah, I doubt that." Preston turns his head towards Nova, giving her a light smiled.

"I must say that me and Beebee are done here now. We must be heading back to my house where the air is a little more warmer than up here." Preston and Beebee headed out of the door, before bowing at the four people here. "Hopefully, I will be visiting James once again soon, before he heads back into America."

"Just keep your nose clean, Preston, and I'll think about you visiting us again." Nova said.

"Very well, farewell to you as well."

Preston leaves, as Leaf looks behind himself. He saw Beebee staring back at him as she and her boyfriend were walking away from the building. She waves at him, smiling at him as she was walking away from the group. Leaf blinked a couple times, unsure with how to respond to something like that. He didn't wave back at her, sadly enough.

"You know..." Leaf said, holding up his hands. "...Preston, that guy, he came along, and he...really made us all annoyed and angry. Um...why don't we all just sit down, and try to do something that will lift our spirits up again..."

"You mean like lifting the furniture in the air again?" Jenny asked.

"No, not like that." Leaf said, looking over to her. "I meant to try to like, listen to music, or watch TV, or...at least talk about something that's not Preston the douche over there. So...what do you think, James? What do you want to do now that you're here with your own aunt?"

"Well, she did finally cook us some dinner now, so...maybe we can have some dinner, and maybe watch a movie or two. How does that sound Leaf?" James asked him. Leaf raises an eyebrow.

"Alright. So...what exactly do we watch around here with you humans anyway?"

"If you ask me, and Jenny, we usually watch science-fiction movies, superhero movies, most of our dates, we play a lot of video games." Leaf nods his head. "If there's a lot of things that the elves don't know about, than stuff like that will probably be stuff you're interested in. I think so, anyway."

"Okay, awesome." James nods his head, giving Leaf a smile, before he and his aunt went off to get themselves some food.


	8. Chapter 8

Later that night...

James, Jenny, Nova, and Leaf have been pretty busy watching TV the rest of that night, they honestly forgotten to look at the time. Deciding to allow Leaf and Nova to head upstairs first, James and Jenny decided to clean up the bottom floor area for them. James was busy wiping off the top counters, as Jenny was sweeping the floor with a broom.

"That Leaf Guy was really enjoying the TV that is over there by the sitting area, wasn't he?" Jenny asked her boyfriend.

"I know. I wasn't expecting someone like him to like the movies that we were showing him." James said. "Kind of glad he was liking The Greatest Showman, as much as I did. Remember when me and you went to see that movie one our first date?" Jenny nods her head, smiling at that.

"You bet I remember that. Nice to see that Leaf likes it too."

"There's a lot of other things that Leaf really needs to see, you know?" James turns around, placing the rag he was using to wipe down tables into the nearby trash can. "Do you think that Leaf will like StarCruiser X, by chance? I forgot that we should've been watching something like that instead of watching a movie." Jenny shrugs her shoulders.

"Beats me. I don't really think he knows what space is." James nods his head, leaning on the nearby table.

"Hmm...good point, Jenny."

"Hey, you guys talking about me down there?" Leaf asked, looking over the edge of the upstairs rails.

James and Jenny looked up at the elf, looking down at them. He was looking down at them, leaning on the rails, as his hat was off of his head. He must've placed it in a different room or something.

"Well, we kind of were." James said, still looking up at Leaf from downstairs.

"Yeah, well, I was just seeing what was taking you guys so long down there. It's just cleaning around the sitting area. Why even bother?" Leaf asked them.

"Because Aunt Nova always does whenever people who want to go into the mountains come here. They rather not rest at a place that's dirty. We're pretty much done anyway."

The elf snaps his fingers, suddenly appearing next to James, floating in mid-air, arms behind his head, as if he was laying down. James jumped, nearly surprised by Leaf suddenly being next to him. He brushes himself off, before staring at the elf.

"From what you guys were talking about this morning, kind of sucks that we're only staying here one night. This place is kind of fun." Leaf said, looking at the ceiling. James looks over to Jenny, placing his hands on his hips.

"Yep. Totally a lot to learn about us humans." James said, to his girlfriend. "So...there's some time that me, you, and Jenny have until we should head out of this place. So...we can...do whatever, really."

Leaf lowers himself to the ground, looking at the geeky goth. "What do you have in mind?"

"Well, considering this is a ski-resort, I don't know how to ski, sadly enough. So, I guess we can do some things that us humans like to do around here, that's nothing like what the elves do down in...where did you say you were from again?"

"It's called the Forest of the Elves."

"Right." James walked over to the stairs, pointing at the elf, before leaning on the side of the rails, looking towards him. "I can tell you that there's a lot more cool things to do around here aside from just...ski, and watch TV in here. Believe me, I'm certainly right when I say that there's a lot of things that we can do around here that's pretty fun."

"What exactly do you call fun around here? I don't see any jukeboxes around here."

"That's because...well, that's actually a pretty long story, Leaf. But let me tell you, there's a lot of cool things you're going to like around here. Trust me, I know what's awesome around here." Jenny smirked, as she leaned on the nearby couch, crossing her arms, shaking her head. "Since Preston decided to not bother us with our visit, thank God...I think it's a good time to show you what's there that's fun to do in the snow."

"Outside? While it's freezing out there?" James nods his head. "Something tells me that I'm not going to like what you humans call fun when it comes to a snowy area."

"Oh quit acting pessimistic about that idea. Trust me, me and Jenny use to do a lot of things back in middle school when it came to snow. You'll like it, trust me." Leaf looks over to Jenny with a worried look, before the geeky girl shrugged her shoulders.

"Well, I hope you guys are right about this." Leaf then held up his hand. "I got to get to bed now. I'll see you guys in the morning."

Leaf snaps his fingers, making himself disappear from the two's sights. The two geeks looked around for Leaf after he just disappeared, only for the elf to appear next to the counter nearby that had a bowl of popcorn at them. Leaf took a couple of them, and then looks at the geeks that were still downstairs. He snaps his fingers again, disappearing once again. James shook his head, looking at the kitchen.

"Son of a bitch..." James mutters. "...I wanted some of that popcorn." Jenny chuckles, before she and James headed upstairs so that they can finally get to bed.

James laid there on his bed, with his radio playing the song _'__I Just Called to Say I Love You_' by Stevie Wonder. He was in his room by himself, as he was looking at the ceiling, trying to get some sleep. After a bit of laying there by himself, he finally drifted off to a dream.

* * *

_He opened his eyes, standing there in his bedroom, dressed and ready to go to his Senior Year prom. He didn't really want to go to prom, considering that he didn't really like the prom all that much, but Goth Boy asked him to come along, since he and Yuki were going together. Also, James wanted to be there for Ray and Raven as well._

_The geeky boy stood there in front of his mirror, seeing himself in a buttoned-down dark gray dress shirt, with black dress pants, and a black bowtie. The geeky goth shook his head, not wishing to see himself in this outfit. He shook his head at the mirror, before heading downstairs._

_"James, dear, you look so...beautiful." His mother said, smiling at her son. "...And so grown up as well. Oh, if your father was here right now, he would be so happy that you're going to your own Senior Prom." The geeky goth blushes hearing his mother say all of this._

_"Mom, Jenny is coming, no way I want them to hear you say that." James said to his mother._

_James crosses his arms, as he stared at his mother smiling at him. His mother has short black hair, and wears a purple blouse, and dark blue skinny-jeans. The geeky goth rubs the back of his neck as he passes her to go to the front door. He looks back at his mother, before speaking to her. _

_"I don't think me nor Jenny want to go to prom tonight. We were literately planning on going to the comic book store instead of...going to that place." James said, feeling unsure he really wants to even go to his prom at all._

_"Come on James, dear...you know you want to go to prom deep down. You can't graduate twice, you know." James's mother said. _

_"Right..." James looks over to the pictures on the wall nearby, before looking back at his mother again. "...Mom, I don't want to...go and...talk about what my dad would think if...he were to be here now, but...do you really think he'd..."_

_"Be proud of you? I'm certain he will." James's mother walks over to her son, rubbing him on his back. "...I know it's been hard for us after he left, but me and him went to prom together, and now, you and Jenny are going as well." James looks down, frowning at the ground. "...Just do this to make him proud. Apart from...Goth Boy and Ray wanting you to be there for them, do this for the sake of your father. He'd want you to go and do this for him." The geeky goth sighed, before nodding his head. _

_"I-I will, mom. Thanks for...this talk." _

_"Your very welcome, dear." _

_A knock came on the door. The two looked over to the front door, being signaled that Jenny was now here. James walked over to the door, opening it up, seeing the geeky girl standing there waiting for one of the two to answer. Jenny stood there, with her usual hat on her head, and a white buttoned-down shirt, as well as a dark blue jacket with dress pants. _

_"Oh Jenny, did you not think about wearing a dress instead?" James's mother asked her. _

_"Mom..." James said, shaking her head. Jenny scoffs, before speaking._

_"Yeah, I don't do dresses, thank you." Jenny said, before James stepped out of the house. "So, James, you ready to go to the prom? Because I honestly can't really say that I'm ready for it. Now apart of me wishes my dad is wanting me to watch over my little brother instead."_

_"Well, you and I both, Jenny." James looks over to his mother, smiling at her. "...But to be honest, I...I'm doing this for my mom and...well...my dad..." James looks down to the ground, before sighing. "...Honestly, I wish he was here so that...he can see me go to prom. I mean, I totally don't want to go, but...I'm willing to go to make him proud. Even if I would refuse to go." Jenny nods her head._

_"I...guess that's nice of you to do for him, James." Jenny than pats him on the back. "Anyways, let's get going. We got a prom to go to." _

_"Don't be back after midnight, James." The geeky boy's mother said, causing James to look at her with a shocked look on his face._

_"Mom, I'm eighteen! Not sixteen!" James looks forward, looking towards his girlfriend. He sighed, before holding up his hands. "Anyways...I won't be...out late at night anyway." James's mother smiled._

_"That's my dear." James waves at his mother, as he and Jenny walked off to go to the Royal Academy for their prom night._

* * *

The geeky goth suddenly woke up...

He looks around his bedroom, noticing that it was finally morning already. He rubs the side of his head, before he got up from his bed, and walked over to the bathroom. He had to get ready for a fun day with Jenny and Leaf this morning, so he went to do everything that he needed to do, then ate breakfast, then headed outside with his friends.


	9. Chapter 9

Outside the ski-lodge, James was sitting on top of a nearby hill, looking through a couple things in the shed that was at the top of it. Leaf and James soon followed the boy up the hill as he was looking through the shed. A football was throw out the door, causing Leaf to dodge it when he approached the door. Leaf looks over to James, who was faced the other way, looking through a pile of random items.

"What the hell are you looking for, dude? Don't you know that you could've hit me or Jenny with that stuff you're throwing around?" Leaf asked him. James stood up from the pile, before looking over to Leaf.

"Ah man, I thought that Aunt Nova still has the sled I had when I was a kid." James said, looking around for a couple more seconds. "I guess things just get old, don't they? Oh well...guess we're find something else to play around here."

"What else is there to even do here? There's nothing more but the snow around here, what's there to even do?"

"You're acting pretty pessimistic there, Leaf. The snow around this part of Canada is just as fun as the TV, or video games, or anything else." James and Leaf exits the shed, closing the door behind them as they left. "Besides, when it snowed in me and Jenny's town, back when we were kids, we always have fun in the snow. Believe me, you can fun in the snow just like how you saw it in the forest." Jenny chuckles, before looking away from her phone.

"What is that?"

"It's a phone." Jenny said. "Why do you ask?"

"We don't have something like that in the Forest of the Elves. Me and my other elf friends only walk to each others houses whenever we have something to say to one another." Leaf looks away from them for a couple moments, then looks back at them. "I'm surprised you guys actually have something like that around here. Humans seem to have all the fun." The elf then smiled a little bit. "On the bright side, it'll give me every reason to go back to them, and tell them that I told them so."

James raises an eyebrow, looking at the elf saying that. "Guess the other elves in your forest village don't...exactly have fun, don't they?" He asked, worried if the question he is asking him will hurt his feelings.

"They have a different opinion on what's fun. They rather not have anything to do with us humans." Leaf said, holding up one hand. "Besides, now that I am gone from their village, I guess that..."

The elf stopped himself, not wanting to bring James and Jenny down with stuff he went through back in the Forest of the Elves. He feels like garbage after all of the other elves mocked him, and Petal tried her best to make sure that she had nothing to do with him, but he rather not let them know about any of that at the moment. Besides, James and Jenny are enjoying themselves around Nova's workplace anyway, no need to bring a depressing conversation up out of nowhere to them.

With a smile, Leaf then places his hands in his pockets, then looks at James and Jenny. "They would be totally jealous of everything that is around here, that's all I can really say, you know?" Leaf said to them. "So...what else is around here for us to do anyway?" James looks around their spot, before walking down the hill.

"Well...if you ask me...I guess we could explore the mountains for a little bit. I mean, my aunt knows somebody up there in the mountains." James said. "Remember that Paul guy I mentioned beforehand?"

"Yeah. Who was he again?"

"One of that Morcubus guy's buddies he worked with, until one accident turned him into a yeti, alongside two other people. But one's dead, and I don't know the other guy personally. But because of my aunt, I know who Paul is." Leaf looks over to Jenny, pointing at the goth in front of him. Jenny nods her head.

"Don't worry, the SPA Agency knows about what happened to Paul as well." Jenny said, before looking over to her boyfriend. "As much as I would like to meet Paul again, I rather not walk through those mountains. It would take forever to get to that cave." Leaf holds onto Jenny's shoulder.

"Who said anything about walking?" Leaf asked. "I mean, come on guys, you know I am an elf. Have you not seen me use magic last night?"

"I was there...couldn't have missed it, really..."

"Well, let's hope you can handle a bit of magic, because..." Leaf places his hands on Jenny and James's shoulders, before all three of them started being surrounded by a purple light. "...Let's head off to the mountains now, shall we?!"

"Wait, what about..." Before Jenny could finish her sentence, the three of them immediately disappeared just like that.

* * *

Meanwhile...

Back at the Forest of the Elves...

Petal was outside of her own house, sitting on one of the nearby boulders next to her own house. She held the gem that the king handed over to her in the palm of one of her hands, before sitting down onto it. She wanted to try to practice some magic while she has some time before going into the village.

The female elf sat down onto the boulder, closing both of her eyes, keeping the gem in her hands. After a couple seconds of keeping this position, Petal's eyes opened, as they were glowing purple just like her gem was. The trees that were in front of her house started to grow many fruits, like apples, oranges, and pears. These fruit grew faster than how most fruit does normally, which was what Petal was actually going for on this one.

Once this was completed, Petal hopped off of the boulder, and looked at the gem in her hand. She frowned a little bit, knowing that she only had a few days with her own grandfather left. She knew that this gem was in safe hands, now that it was given to her.

Just as she was looking at her gem by herself, Petal's mother came out of the house. Petal's mother has the same hair as her daughter's hair, but wears a dark green dress with a purple corset, as well as dark brown heels. The female elf walked over to her own mother, giving her a soft smile.

"Petal, I was wondering where you were this morning." Petal's mother said. "Woken up a bit more earlier, I see." The girl nodded, before speaking.

"Of course I did, mother." Petal said, before holding up the gem in her hands. "The king has given me this so that I can protect the rest of the elves around this kingdom. He relies on me to protect nature after he..."

Petal stops in her words, not wanting to bring herself to tears, knowing the inevitable will end up happening to her own grandfather. Closing her eyes, Petal kept herself from letting out a single tear, before taking a sigh. She gave her mother a sincere smile, before speaking to her.

"...He told me to just protect nature from any sort of harm that comes it's way." Petal said, before placing it into her bag. "Knowing that...he is my grandfather, he trusts me completely with the entire kingdom." The female elf then looks down at the ground below her. "...I just hope I'm capable of protecting the ENTIRE kingdom, the more I think about it." Petal's mother places a hand on her daughter's shoulder, before smiling back at her.

"I know for a fact that you are going to protect this entire kingdom with every single bit of your being." Petal's mother said to her daughter. "You've been so passionate towards nature, that you will become the best protector that this forest has ever had." Petal frowned.

"It's still a shame that...grandfather would have to..."

"He will be in a better place, Petal. We will miss him dearly, but he will be watching over us when he is gone." Petal softly nods her head, before her mother pats her on the arm. "Now, me and your father must go to the market to pick up some books for our house. We will be gone until the sun sets. If you want, you can hang out with Leaf or Pine-Cone for a little while." Petal then looks out to the distance.

"You know, now that you've mention it, I haven't seen Leaf in quite some time now." Petal looks at her mother once more, before deciding to walk off. "I think I'll go visit Leaf right now. I'll come back home in a little while."

"On your way, dear." With that said, Petal went off to go find Leaf's house.


	10. Chapter 10

She wanted to see how Leaf was doing now that she has given him some time to himself. Petal hasn't heard from the elf in awhile, so it was only fair to see how things are right now. If he wasn't getting out of the his house, then something is wrong, very wrong on Petal's part.

The girl arrived at Leafs house. She walked over to the side of the window, looking inside of the house. She hoped Leaf was at least in there somewhere, just enjoying some alone time to himself. But by the looks of it, it doesn't seem like Leaf was actually anywhere in there. With the exception of furniture, there doesn't seem to be anyone inside of the house. Petal starts knocking on the door now.

"Leaf?!" Petal shouts, continuing to knock. "Are you home?!"

No answer was given. Petal frowns, getting annoyed, before deciding to try to open the door already. She notices that it was unlocked, before entering the house so that she can see if Leaf was even around his own house, or if he was somewhere else. She walked into the house, hoping that Leaf was inside his house.

"Leaf?! I was just wanting to say sorry for...what happened between us back there in the village!" Petal shouts from her friend's living room. "I just hope you're not too angry with me for what happened, because...I really want us to still be friends regardless. But I really wanted to see if you were okay!"

Still nothing was said by Leaf upstairs, nor in a different room. Now the girl was starting to get a little more worried about her friend, wondering if he was even okay or not. She honestly doesn't know if he was hurt, or missing, or worse, dead. Petal had to look around for the elf around his house, in hopes that he was okay.

The girl was looking around the entire house, only to find out that Leaf was nowhere was found. Not in the living room, not in his kitchen, nor his bedroom, not even the room with the jukebox in it. Leaf was literately nowhere in the house, which now has Petal extremely concern for her friend. If he wasn't around his house, then he has to be around the island.

'_If Leaf's not here, then he's probably somewhere around the island. I should ask one of my friends if they can help me with finding Leaf._' Petal said in her thoughts.

"Petal! What are you doing near that weird boy's house." A voice said from nearby.

The elf looks over to two girls that were nearby. Petal walks over to them, and then points to her friend's house, hoping that they could help out with finding Leaf. "I was only seeing if Leaf was okay, but he isn't there in his house. Did you guys see him yesterday, or...recently, by chance?" The two elf girls looked at each other, before shrugging, while looking at Petal. "He's not at his house, so...I hopefully feel he is somewhere around the village. Can you help me find him? Because I really need to tell him something."

"Why should we? He talks about being friends with those humans too much." The other elf girl said. Petal pulls out the gem out of her bag.

"Because...the king is trusting me with protecting nature after he dies. So...basically, in truth, that makes me the leader of the elves after..." The two elf girls in front of Petal were shocked by the gem in Petal's hand, before nodding their heads in agreement.

"Alright, we'll search for Leaf around the island for you, Petal."

"Jeez, I can't believe that Petal is going to be the next protector of nature after the king dies. Can't you believe it, Tulip?" The other female elf said, as she and her friend were walking away from Petal.

"I can't believe it either."

Petal looks out to the forest in the distance of where she was standing. She then looks out to the ocean. She then looks forward, feeling worried for the whereabouts of Leaf.

The last time she saw him, she was trying her best to have nothing to do with him, and trying to avoid talking to him. She wish she didn't come across as mean when she was talking to him that night. If something bad really did happen to Leaf, she honestly wishes that she could take that moment back in her life. Placing the gem back into her bag, Petal headed off to go find Leaf now.

* * *

Back with Preston now...

The boy was sitting at a warehouse in the town he was in. He was sitting in the office room of this building, as Beebee was reading a book off of the shelf nearby. He had his hands together, looking out to the sky that was outside, thinking to himself as there was nothing but silence.

No longer wanting there to be silence, Preston stood up from the chair, then headed over to the nearby phone. He presses one of the buttons on the phone, before standing by. He looks over to Beebee, who was now walking out of the office, knowing exactly who Preston was going to talk to. She wanted to not be in the room when he was talking to this person.

"Preston, I see you're giving me a call." The person on the phone said. The voice clearly sounds like it was somehow deepened by the phone. "So tell me, what is new with you today?"

"Oh, nothing. I just met a rather old friend today." Preston said.

"An old friend now? I believe it's Professor Nova, correct?"

"Her too. But I was talking about her nephew, James Louiston. He is this...person who was entirely against me when it came to what I was trying to get that Paul guy arrested..."

"Well, he knew Morcubus just like I did." The voice continued to talk, as the sound of footsteps was heard on the phone. "I know Brandi as well...and now that they are in jail, because the SPA Agency found them, I'm the only one in MorcuCorp left." Preston nods, looking out the window, shaking his head.

"I believe that you're...at least, happy that Morcubus is out of the Nightmare Realm."

"Of course I am...it's a shame that the SPA Agents got to him first before I did...because of course they have to be the ones to get to him first." The voice growled on the other line, before finally continuing to talk. "As a matter of fact, I was hoping to go to New York to try to convince Brandi to come along with me to find the Nightmare Crown so that we can get Morcubus out of there, but...sad as hell, the SPA Agents got to her too." Preston then leans on the table, looking down at the phone, giving it a smirk.

"Listen here...I am at your side on this one. Don't worry."

"I am worried, Preston. Without Brandi, I have nobody else to have by my side on trying to continue what those SPA Agents stopped!" Preston rolled his eyes, before patting the side of the table, before standing up.

"Just keep your trust in me." Preston then looks up at the door once again, before looking down at the phone once again. "Listen, I'll stop by your house a couple moments from now. Whatever happens, just keep yourself calm before I get there. Alright?" Preston then places a finger onto the phone, before saying his last words to the person on the phone. "Me and Beebee are on the way now, since you're actually nearby."

"Of course. I will be looking forward to seeing you, Preston."

Preston finally ends the call. He walks out of the office room, as Beebee was standing by the water fountain. She walks over to her boyfriend as he was walking over to the elevator that was right across from the upstairs area of the warehouse. The two started to walk, side by side, heading their way out of the building.

"Prezzy-Weezy, what did that meanie need on the phone?" Beebee asked with a worried look on her face. Preston kept his eyes forward, as he spoke.

"Just needed some help with something, sweetie. It's nothing that concerns you, one single bit." Preston said, before finally turning his head towards the girl with pink hair. "Allow me to talk to the person, as you stay outside of the house when we get there. Since you don't really seem to like this person all that much, I will be the one to talk to her." He places a hand on her shoulder. "Is that alright with you, sweetheart?" Beebee nods her head softly. "Perfect, now..."

The two exited the warehouse, and headed over to the car in the parking lot of the walled warehouse yard. Preston kept his eyes forward, before starting his car, then backing up from the parking space he was in. He looks over to his girlfriend, ready to drive off to the person's house.

"Let's get to this person already..." Preston said, as he began to drive off to the house he was needing to go to.


	11. Chapter 11

The three arrived at the cave that James was actually talking about. The three appeared right near the cave that Paul lives inside now, hearing the song '_Born on the Bayou_' by Creedence Clearwater Revival playing on a radio inside of the ice cave. That was a pretty clear sign that Paul was still up here alright.

Leaf walked up to the cave, curious about what was inside of it. He stood by the side of the entrance, looking inside of it, not seeing the yeti anywhere inside of there. After looking around inside this cave, Leaf turns around, facing James and Jenny as they were standing there with their arms crossed, and staring at the elf. Leaf then spoke, breaking the group's silence.

"Okay. Where is this guy?" Leaf asked them. "I don't see him anywhere in there." James steps forward, tapping his chin, rather curious at where Paul was.

"Well, usually when somebody is near the cave's entrance, he would often greet them, almost instantly." James said, coming closer to the cave. "Hold on...Hey Paul! You in there?!" James looks inside the cave, hoping that Paul was inside. The geeky goth than turns to face Leaf, shrugging his shoulders. "Huh, guess he's not here..."

"Well, actually, I was on my way." A rough raspy voice said inside the cave.

James and Leaf look towards the direction of the cave. Coming out of the cave's entrance, a tall beast with dark blue skin, and white fur was coming out into the two's view. James seemed unfazed by the sight of him, as Leaf's pupils were shrinking at the sight of the yeti. This was actually not what he was expecting at all.

Leaf screams, pointing at the yeti, before falling onto his back. James and Jenny stared at Leaf with shocked looks on their faces. James looks over to the yeti that has came out of his cave. He pointed at the elf who was feeling completely dumbfounded by the sight of the yeti. The geeky goth shrugged his shoulders, chuckling nervously at what just happened.

"Sorry, Leaf is somebody that me and Jenny that we've encountered on the way up here, Paul." James said. Paul nods his head.

"Ah, I see, man." Paul said, nodding his head. "Who is he?"

"His name is Leaf. He is...well, as unbelievable as this sounds, he is an elf. Not the kind who lives up in the North Pole, no. I mean, he is a different kind of elf." Leaf rubs the side of his head, as he stood up off of the ground. He looks over to James, rubbing the side of his head. James looks over to the elf he was standing next to. "No need to panic, dude. Paul is friendly."

"Totally."

"Totally?" Leaf asked, standing up in the snow. "In all my years, I have never seen somebody like you before Paul, and that's saying a lot, I seen unicorns." James and Jenny stared at the elf in surprise hearing that being said.

"You and your elf friends have unicorns in...this forest that you lived in before?!" Jenny asked, surprised by that fact Leaf brought up. Leaf smiled, nodding his head. "Then again, I've seen a lot of crap since I've joined the SPA Agency...I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the fact that there's unicorns somewhere in this world..." Leaf chuckles, before looking over to Paul.

"So...Paul, um...are you magical just like me?"

"Not really. I have helped my friends, Mike and Cyrus create a crown that can send you to some place called the Nightmare Realm." Paul said, rather causally. "Did James ever mentioned about how the agents almost went to a place like that?" Leaf shook his head.

"Never heard of it, until these two brought it up to me." Leaf then places his hands on his hips, before looking at Paul. "Just as long as that crown is no longer in anyone's hands, then I'm sure we're safe." The elf then raises an eyebrow. "...Right?"

"Last time I remember Morcubus, he was finally arrested." Paul said. "He and his two girls are no longer going to be troubling us for awhile..." Jenny cringed, looking down to the ground.

"Maybe not both girls..." Jenny said with a worried look on her face. "Turns out, the SPA Agency only has Brandi. Esma is still missing..."

"Oh no..."

"Oh no...wait, who's Esma now?" Leaf asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Let's just say that between the two of them, Brandi has a bit more of a moral compass, as well as being more of a petty bully after Morcubus disappeared from the world." The geeky girl frowns. "Can't really say Esma is that kind of girl. She's even worse than Brandi."

"That doesn't sound good."

"It isn't..." Jenny looks behind herself, before sighing to herself. "...I should probably tell you more about her inside the cave, because there's a lot of things I'm worried about when it comes to Esma." The group agreed to this, then headed inside of the cave.

At that moment, Jenny was remembering the moment that Esma was finally discovered in her town...

* * *

_Back in the year 2017..._

_Jenny was sitting in a black car in the driver seat with Agent Walker. The man has brown well-combed hair, with a dark blue tuxedo, and a yellow badge. The girl was brought along since she saw Esma herself running along the sidewalk of the industrial park part of town. Thankfully for the geeky girl, she was able to get Agent Walker to come down there in time._

_While they were driving, Jenny was looking out of her window, making sure that she keeps an eye out for the former MorcuCorp member. Esma didn't really have anything that was different to keep herself from Jenny's notice, she was wearing her casual outfit. The same old red jacket with yellow shoulder-pads, a black dress, and a headband with bunny ears on them. It was easy for Jenny to notice her from a mile away because of that girl alone. The only problem was, she didn't see Brandi with her at all. _

_During the drive, the two stopped next to an alley-way that Esma ran down. Thankfully, Jenny knew the industrial park from the back of her head, as she visited the goths there, time to time. So, she knew that they alley-way that the MorcuCorp girl ran down was nothing more but a dead-end. So her running down there was a huge mistake on Esma's part. The two got out of the car, running into the alley-way._

_"Wonderful...just wonderful..." Esma mutters, trying to jump over the fence that was right there. "...Damn it...this is just..." _

_Esma glared at the two agents that were right behind her. "Esma, you're trapped. You have nowhere to run...so if I were you, I would just surrender right now." Agent Walker said, as he and Jenny were walking closer to her. The MorcuCorp girl stood there, glaring at the two of them, unhappy with the fact that she was caught. _

_"You pricks just had to arrest me...just know that once Morcubus gets out of the Nightmare Realm, he is going to have you all..."_

_"Morcubus is gone, Esma..." Walker than looks down to the ground. "...As well as...Evelyn, but..." Walker closes his eyes, before glaring at Esma again. "...Jenny did tell me that you were still attempting to steal something from the warehouse. Now if you don't mind surrendering, we don't have to be too harsh on you." _

_Esma steps closer, holding her hands up in the air. "Fine...you got me...you pricks got me, happy?" Esma stood by Walker, as Jenny places shackles onto the girl's arms. "Just know one thing you two, just because Morcubus is gone, trapped in the Nightmare Realm...MorcuCorp is not done. It's not done until me, or Brandi say it is. It's not over I promise you..." Jenny pats Esma on the back, directing her to the car that they came in. _

_"Yeah...just...go to the car, Esma. There's no need for this kind of behavior to continue." Jenny said. "Just admit that Morcubus is probably dead, because it's been seven years since he disappeared, and we haven't found a way to get into the Nightmare Realm yet." Esma chuckles, before looking at Jenny again._

_"You think that Morcubus is dead, ha ha...I know that he isn't...I know he isn't!" Those words stayed in Jenny's ears as Esma was being taken to the car. Later on, Esma would've been taken to the SPA Agency, and than straight to prison immediately after._

* * *

"...That was really...the last time I actually stumbled upon Esma." Jenny said, finishing what she was describing to Leaf.

The group were all sitting around a coffee table that was in the middle of the cave. James and Jenny were sitting in two lawn chairs, while Paul was sitting on his regular armchair. Leaf on the other hand was just floating in the air. It was kind of shocking for the elf to hear a story like this, not knowing that this kind of thing was happening in the humans area.

"So...this Esma girl, how did she escape the SPA Agency anyway?" Leaf asked the geeky girl. Jenny sighed, before looking at James.

"Let's just say, the day the junkyard was destroyed, my boyfriend's group was taken to prison, and his leader agreed to leave the jail with her and Yuki." Jenny said, clearly annoyed. James raises a hand.

"I just want to make it clear, I was NOT involved in that fight that happened in the junkyard. I really was in this town, while it was all happening. So yeah, mostly it was Goth Boy's fault." James said.

"I know that, babe." Jenny said, looking over to Leaf now. "...And I'm not angry with you, nor Ghostly, Violet, Ray, or Raven, since they were not at the junkyard when it happened. I'm pretty pissed that Goth Boy had to go and...allow something like THAT to happen to Ol' Gabby." Leaf raises up both hands, feeling confused by the names that Jenny was bringing up to them.

"Woah now, guys...I don't think I have ever heard you guys mentioned those other four goths you brought up." Leaf said. "Not to mention, what do they have to do with anything that's Esma? Or MorcuCorp? Or whatever the hell that Nightmare Realm is?" Jenny looks over to Leaf, nodding her head.

"Oh, right...sorry, got a bit off-topic there, didn't we?" Jenny then sighed. "All I can say that's good news is that Morcubus and Brandi are found by the SPA Agency once again...however, Esma is still missing."

"Still, I don't see how this is a problem. Maybe it's...like what you were saying that she was believing, you know? Maybe she's..."

"Gone? Dead? Unlikely." Jenny stood up from the chair, walking over to the elf.

"Sorry, just a thought." Leaf said. "I mean, I just came to this place recently, I don't know what is going on around here." Leaf rubs the side of his head, sighing to himself. "I can't actually figure out where a person is, and if he or she is lost out there. If I had to magic to find a person out there in the world, I totally would. But I don't." Jenny sighed.

"Well...wherever Esma is, I just hope that Preston isn't friends with her." James nods his head.

"Oh, don't bring THAT idea into the light. It's bad enough that that asshole is back in my life now, and probably came to the ski-lodge to pester me and my aunt." James said, extremely bitter. "The last thing I need to hear is that he's helping out that girl. Or Morcubus!"

"Relax, James. The SPA Agency has been trying to find Esma for days now." Jenny sighed. "As for Preston, I doubt he is going to help somebody like her at all."

* * *

Back with Preston and Beebee...

The two were driving along the street, heading off to the house that the person they were talking to was wanting them to go to. They parked next to a rather large house that has two-stories, and no car in the driveway. Preston and Beebee got out of the car, and then headed over to the front door of the house.

Preston looks at one of the windows as he was walking up to the front door. Despite the fact that there was no car in the driveway, he could see somebody was inside, since he saw a figure moving inside of the house. He places an arm in front of his girlfriend, wanting her to stay outside, while he talked to the person who was in there. It was what the two promised was going to happen anyway.

"Just stay here, Beebee. I'll talk them alone." Preston said, assuring his girlfriend that things were going to be okay with him. Beebee nods her head, as Preston heads inside the house.

"Be safe, Prezzy-Weezy." Beebee said softly, as her boyfriend entered the house.

Inside...

Preston closes the door behind himself. He looks around the house, seeing that it had a lot of boxes around the place. Most of them still closed, with items still inside of them. The boy walked deeper inside, trying to find the person who he was looking for. He knew he saw somebody downstairs before he entered this house, now it seems like they've disappeared.

That was until the person spoke. The voice was female, and it was in a dark part of the house. "So...you finally arrived, Preston." The voice said. "I was expecting you to come here..."

"I had to stay to my promise..." Preston said, placing his hands in his pockets. "...It would be terrible if I turned it down without a word. Isn't that right...Esma?"

"Agreed."


	12. Chapter 12

It was silent between the two...

Esma came into the open. She was a little different from when Jenny saw her last. The girl's hair is still the same, as well as her usual bunny ear headband, but she now wears a black long jacket that has the collar up, with a dark blue jumpsuit underneath. She also has a yellow belt around her waist as well.

Preston crossed his arms, walking up to the MorcuCorp girl, as he was reaching into his pocket. Esma held out her hand, as Preston pulled out a gem from his pocket. Then he places the gem into Esma's hand. The girl took a good look at the gem that the preppy boy handed over to her, before placing it into her pocket.

"I believe that that was the gem that you have took from the SPA Agency, about a couple months ago, when you were doing community service for them?" Esma asked him. The prep nodded his head.

"In a matter of fact, yes. It really is." Preston said, smiling at the girl. "None of the other agents know about the gem being missing from the crown."

"You must really have your ways, huh Preston?"

"You know I do, Esma. You know that as a fact, I have my ways." Preston than looks at the girl once again. "I must ask, have you gotten word from Morcubus or Brandi recently? Because if you're going to pull this plan off, you're going to need more than just yourself still." Esma looks over to the prep, narrowing her eyes into a glare. She did not like the fact that Preston had to ask that kind of question.

"You think I know what to do? I really don't!" Esma turns around, facing the window behind her, glaring outside of it. "...As much as I hate asking this to you, again, I'm afraid that YOU and Beebee are going to be my help when it comes to this plan." Preston crossed his arms, staring at the MorcuCorp girl with a raised eyebrow. "It's already a bad idea for Beebee to help me out with this enough..."

"Or...is this because..."

"Damn it, Preston! It's not because of...that. You know the reason is because I don't think Beebee is a smart person." Esma then looks over to prep once again. "I hope she doesn't end up being a liability to my plan, because I have a low tolerance for people being idiots. Especially your girlfriend..." Preston sighed, before muttering to himself.

"Well, hopefully if she doesn't find out about this plan, and...nevermind..." Preston closed his eyes, before looking at Esma once again. He opens his eyes, taking a huge sigh, before talking to the MorcuCorp girl. "...Look, I'll help you throughout all of this, while Beebee...hopefully, she won't be too much of a liability to us."

The girl glared at Preston again. The glare left her face as she began to talk. "That would be lovely, Preston." She then points at the prep, glaring at him, once again. "But if that Beebee girl even ruins my plans, so help me that she will disappear like the last person that attempted to help me with this!" Preston held up his hands, walking backwards towards the door behind him.

"Yes, yes, I understand completely, Esma." Preston bowed, before walking away from her. "I shall see you later on in this month." Esma nods her head, before facing forward at the window.

Esma then pulled out the gem that Preston handed over to her. She held it closer to her face, smiling at it as she kept it close to her face. It was starting to glow in the palm of her hands as she was standing there by the window of the house. The reflection of light from the sun, shining down on the gem, reflecting onto her face. She chuckles with a sinister tone of voice, before staring up at the window.

* * *

Back at the ski-resort...

Leaf and James were sitting on the balcony on the second-floor, enjoying some music to themselves, as well as enjoying looking at the mountains in the distance. It was a bit before they finally arrived back at the building, but they left, as they were wanting to go off to the building once again for warmth.

So it was almost nighttime already, and the two were listening to the song '_In the Air Tonight_' by Phil Collins, while they were sitting on the balcony. Leaf was looking at a random book that he found inside the building, as James was looking out to the mountains. James turns his head to look over to the elf he was sitting with, before leaning closer to him.

"Hey, if you're worried about that conversation that me, you, Jenny, and Paul had back there in the cave...I wouldn't advise worrying about it." James said. "Besides, Esma is out there in the world somewhere. If she was somewhere in Canada right now, then boy, that would be a coincidence." Leaf lowers the book from his own view, looking over to the human he was sitting with, before rubbing the back of his head. "...Besides, for all we know, she is probably out there in...I don't know, Australia, or something." Leaf shook his head.

"Eh, I'm not worried." Leaf said, giving James a smirk. "If this Esma girl ever comes near us, you know I have magic." James cringed hearing that being said. Leaf noticed the look on his friend's face. "What's wrong?"

"Uh...yeah, Leaf...I don't mean to sound like a total jerk or anything, but...I don't think Esma would like noticing you using magic." Leaf raises an eyebrow at the boy.

"What is that suppose to mean?!"

"Leaf, Esma is some MorcuCorp member who tried to take over the entire world as if she and her friends are like some sort of superhero villain. Do you really think that letting her know you have magic be a good idea?" Leaf raises a finger, before looking over to the right where the streets are.

"I...don't exactly understand that superhero stuff." James frowned, before Leaf then nods his head. "But...I think I know what you're saying. Hell, I don't even know this Esma girl." Leaf than chuckles again. "Then again, I guess us elves are lucky enough to have not noticed something like...you know, all of that crazy shit that had happened back in 2010, or...whenever that stuff with the Nightmare Realm happened." James shrugged.

"I guess. But things worked out recently." James then leans back in the chair he was sitting on, before placing a foot on the rail in front of him. "You know...with Jenny and Paul mentioning MorcuCorp back there, I feel like you've been pretty disturbed by what was said. So I feel it's only best that we leave the whole...MorcuCorp situation alone." Leaf nods his head.

"Yeah, you're totally right...and I guess I shouldn't be too worried about that since...well, it's really a thing in the past."

"Yeah, totally."

The two looked forward, looking at the snow drifting down from the sky. Keeping his eyes on the sky, Leaf then turns his head towards the human he was sitting next to. He rubs his chin, before finally talking to the boy he friends with.

"This might sound like a crazy question, but how did you end up meeting Jenny? I...don't think I ever asked." Leaf asked him. James stood up from his lawn chair, before turning around towards the elf, pointing at him.

"Now that is a long story...but...yeah, so, I think I already told you that I was in a group of goths, right?" Leaf nods his head, leaning back on the chair. "Right, well, lets just say that during the time, me and her weren't dating, we were just friends. Rob was turning into a failure of a boyfriend, and he was...pretty angry a lot. Jenny didn't really like him all that much anymore, so...they were almost going to breakup, or just Jenny was attempting to break up with him, until he almost got into a fight with her." James points at himself. "That's where I come in...me, Goth Boy, and Ray were going to try to talk to Jenny, tell her the truth that...I was sadly keeping from her, that...but that's a completely different story, so...I walked into the house, and...expressed my real feelings for her...then Rob attacked the hell out of me for doing so..." Leaf cringed hearing that.

"Ouch..."

"Tell me about it." James than gave the elf a smirk. "Thankfully, Goth Boy and Ray were there to keep him from attacking me any further. Then...me and Jenny kissed after that."

"Right after you attacked her boyfriend?"

"To be fair, he did kind of deserve it since he was going to literately fight her." Leaf bit his lip, before nodding his head to that being said.

"I guess that makes sense." Leaf stood up from his own seat, before James asked a question he was not expecting him to ask.

"Did you ever have a girl you really ended up liking? You know, like a girlfriend? I don't think I have ever asked that before."

Leaf stopped in his movement, hearing that question being asked. He couldn't help but remember everything that Petal had said to him on his last days in his own forest. He couldn't help but remember that she didn't side with him when it came to trying to get to the humans. It was just a horrible moment for Leaf, that he couldn't dare say Petal's name, nor bring her into this. He still felt betrayed by her for not siding with him when every elf was against him. He shook his head, before shrugging his shoulders.

"You know, I have never been in love before." Leaf said, lying to him. "I've just...been around the place, and just...haven't really been into any of the elves." James frowned hearing that.

"Oh, damn, sorry about asking that." James said to him.

"To be honest, I doubt that I would've ended up getting a girl out there in my forest anyway. None of them are...I mean, I guess that there's a person out there for me somewhere, but...I know, deep down in my gut that somewhere, I will find a girlfriend." James nods his head.

"That's nice to hear, Leaf." The boy then sat down next to the elf once again. "Between you and me, dude...I sure hope you find a girlfriend out there in this world. I'm sure that there is one for you."

"I...sure hope so..." Leaf looks away from James, looking at the road out there in the distance.


	13. Chapter 13

Meanwhile...

Back at the Forest of the Elves...

It was already a long search with Petal and her friends. The three of them have been searching the entirety of the Forest for the entire day, trying to find Leaf around the village. They literately checked every single spot this island has.

He was not in the fruit forest. He wasn't in the village itself. Leaf wasn't even in the woods, trying to be friends with the other animals. Petal was starting to grow even more anxious about where her own friend went off to. Then again, a lot of things were running through her head as she was trying to find Leaf around the entire island.

Once nighttime came for the Forest of the Elves, Petal took a break from walking around, leaning on a nearby boulder. Petal's two friends were now walking over to the girl, feeling just as exhausted and annoyed as her.

"Petal, this is ridiculous." One of Petals friends said to her. "We've been searching the entire island all day, and we found no sign of Leaf. I feel like we should just go home now, because the elf is literately nowhere around here." Petal sighed, before shaking her head.

"No, he's got to be around here somewhere...he can't be missing from the entire island." Petal said, being in complete denial that Leaf would really abandon the elves on this island. "If he's not here than he's...he's..."

Petal looks down, before one of her friends spoke up. "Petal, don't tell me you want to be friends with that immature elf."

"I..." Petal looked at the eyes of her friends, seeing them narrowing, and not being moved away from her. The female elf gulps, before finally speaking. "No, I really don't. I just...wanted to apologize to him about...something, and I just...really wanted to do that because...as future protector of nature, I felt like it was only right." The two elf girls looked at each other, before looking at Petal once again.

"We're sorry we were no help. But we tried." One of the two elves said. "It's already night, and we need to get to bed. Leaf will hopefully show up sooner or later. Hopefully. If not...we're sorry." One of the two girls patted Petal on her shoulder. "I'm sure he'll turn up."

The two girls walked away from her, as Petal remained sitting on the boulder by herself. She looks out to the ocean, hoping that Leaf is safe. Either he is out in the forest, or he finally snapped, built a boat, and headed out to sea to find the humans part of the world. If the second thing is what really happened, then she can't believe he left without telling her goodbye.

'_Please be safe out there, Leaf..._' Petal said in her thoughts as she sat there on the boulder. '_I know you're out there somewhere..._'

* * *

Back with Leaf...

It was finally morning with him and James. The two were packing up the car, since himself, Jenny, and Leaf were ready to head back to America so that they can continue life there. It was a fun weekend for the three of them, but now it's time for the couple, and Leaf, to leave.

Leaf was leaning on the car that James owns, as Jenny was moving her backpack into the trunk of her boyfriends car. James was standing by the front door of the ski-lodge, hugging his aunt, telling her his goodbyes. Leaf was actually watching from his spot, blinking a couple of times, looking down to the ground. Jenny closes the trunk, noticing Leaf's solemn look on his face.

"Hey, you seem sad there, Leaf." Jenny said. "Someone wrong?" Leaf was surprised by Jenny's voice coming out of nowhere, which causes him to fall straight to the ground. Leaf quickly stood up, before shaking his head.

"Oh, was I looking sad there?" Leaf asked. Jenny nods her head, still looking concern for him. "Oh, actually, I'm totally cool right now. It's just that..." Leaf points at James and Nova talking to each other, before sighing. "...I guess I'm just seeing James and his aunt, you know?"

"I guess you miss your family, hmm?"

"What makes you think that?" Jenny shrugs her shoulders.

"Just a hunch."

"Well, Whatever you're assuming, I can tell you this. I don't really know my parents all that much. Truth be told, I've always been a loner." Leaf points at himself, giving Jenny a usually careless smile. "I mean, I don't look like I am one, but...I kind of...ran away from my own back in my village..."

"Oh..."

"Yeah. Kind of sucks to be at that island sometimes, you know?" Leaf than points at James from his spot. "So, I'm guessing James is a bit of a loner too, huh? He's not living with his parents anymore?"

"He is old enough to live on his own now." Jenny said, leaning on the hood along with the elf. "He still visits his mom time to time."

"Not his dad?" Jenny frowned, before shaking her head.

"I shouldn't really say anything, since James would rather me to not speak of what happened to his dad without him knowing about me talking about it." Jenny sighed, before looking at Leaf. "All I can tell you is that what happened back than hurts him very much, and it still hurts him to this day. He rather not talk about that part of his life." Leaf frowned, before nodding his head, not wanting to try to talk Jenny into telling the truth to him.

"Okay."

James walked back to his car, waving at his aunt as he was walking over to the car. Professor Nova went back inside the ski-resort building, as her nephew went back to the car. He smiled at his two friends, before wipes one of his eyes, keeping himself from showing that he was tearing up because he's leaving his aunt's workplace once again. James got a hold of himself, before finally speaking to his two friends.

"Well, this was a fun weekend for me and Jenny." James said. "Also, kind of...more fun with you coming along with us, Leaf. It was unexpected for me and Jenny, but hey, at least it wasn't Goth Boy who came with us." The goth held up a hand. "Not saying that as an insult, just saying that because I would've accidentally invite him before we came up here. Thank God I didn't." Leaf nods his head.

"Took it as a compliment anyway, dude." Leaf said, smiling at him. "Guess we're going back to your town, hmm? Where is it at?"

"I don't live in Canada, but I live in America." James walks over to the driver's seat, getting into his car along with Jenny. Leaf snaps his fingers, teleporting himself into the back-seat of the car. "It might be a day or two to get there...or...we could use that teleportation thing you got." Leaf shook his head.

"Hate to break it to you dude, but that's not happening. I can teleport three of us, I don't know how to use my magic on this car. So it seems like we're driving there." James nods his head, not noticing that before.

"I see." James starts his car, before looking behind himself at Leaf again. "I didn't think about that. Also I just remembered that me and Jenny were talking about looking at some of the stores that we were passing by, thinking there might be cool video games inside some of them." Leaf rubs his chin, finding that interesting. "Now, my aunt doesn't have video games inside that building, but I can tell you this, when you go into an arcade, you're going to love it, Leaf." The elf nods his head, agreeing with the goth completely.

"I'm curious about what one of those video game things are, dude. I really want to find out."

"Then let's get going to one of those stores than. Shall we?"

James backs up from the parking space he was parked in, before backing up from the spot, and heading off onto the road out of there. Professor Nova smiled and waved goodbye to the group as they were now heading off back to their own hometown. She went back into her building, heading back to work immediately after.

* * *

While the three of them were in the car...

"You really don't think that Preston is going to be a bother to us?" Leaf asked. "I'm sorry for bringing him up again, but he would seem like the total prick to come around and try to stop you from going back to your hometown." James looks behind himself, looking at his friend.

"I doubt he will be a bother to us." James said. "Besides, he has no idea I'm leaving now. The only way he'd end up knowing about THAT, is if he has a random feeling that I'm heading out of this place right now. If he really is, then by God, he has some lucky thinking there if he is assuming me, you, and Jenny are now heading home...or, me and Jenny's hometown, I mean." Leaf looks over to his own window, seeing the snow beginning to disappear from their view. "Look, don't worry about Preston at all, if the asshole attempts anything, we're just going to ignore him."

"Would probably be hard, knowing that seems like an unpredictable person."

"Tell me about it." James faces forward, looking at the road again. "All I know is that I doubt Preston would even take notice of me being gone. He's no longer going to bother my aunt anymore, and if he does, the SPA Agency will be right on his ass if he does so. Second, I'm pretty much the last person he even wants to even be having around him, and only has me near specific to mock and spite me."

"I know...believe me, I know. I sure hope he won't be troubling us again..."


	14. Chapter 14

Back with Preston...

The man was walking out in the middle of the woods, holding a piece of paper that had how to build the Nightmare Crown was on it. The prep has on a short-sleeved dress shirt with beige shorts. He was holding a shovel in his hands as he was walking through the forest to try to find a certain spot that Esma wanted to find for her.

During his walk through the forest, he couldn't get something out of his head. "Gah...why didn't Esma do this bit herself? I have more important things to do rather than search for some sort of stone to try to get for the object that Esma needs right now..." Preston said, completely annoyed. "Now where in the hell is this stone that Esma is even wanting me to find anyhow?"

Preston noticed a large rock that was on the ledge of the forest he was at. He walked over to the rock, pulling out the shovel from his bag, placing it into the ground. He tried to lift the rock with the shovel to get it out of the ground. He looks over to the road, making sure that it's clear before he gets this out of the ground.

"I'm just lucky that Beebee is at my house, just enjoying some TV or something. Hopefully, she's not doing something stupid while I'm gone." Preston mutters still, as he was trying to get to get the giant rock out of the ground. "Even more so, I hope that she doesn't end up noticing what me and Esma did a couple months back. Around April even..." Preston shook his head, before attempting to get the giant rock out of the ground. "...Oh well...let's focus on trying to get this rock out of the ground already."

Preston tried to get giant rock out of the ground. He continued to get it out of the ground, with all of his strength. He tried harder and harder, before finally getting it off of the ledge. The boulder fell straight into the road, thankfully onto nobody. The prep looks into the road below the ledge, seeing nobody was hurt. He sighed, before looking out to the right.

He took notice of a very familiar car that was coming it's way over to the direction of the rock. The prep knew that the person coming was none other than James. He rubs his chin, taking notice of this, before nodding his head.

"Well, well, well...look who's coming over to my spot too, hmm..." Preston said out loud to himself.

* * *

The car was continuing to drive, until the rock came into James's view. The boy stops his car in front of the rock, taking notice of the rock that was now in the way for them. James, Jenny, and Leaf got out of the car, walking up to the boulder that was in the middle of the road.

"Now where the hell did THIS rock come from?! It wasn't here when we were here last time." James said, clearly annoyed by the fact that it's in the middle of the road. Jenny looks around for a couple moments, before shaking her head.

"Gah, it must've fallen off of the nearby cliff or something..." Jenny said to the two boys she was with. "Well, now what?" Leaf smiled at James and Jenny, before walking forward from the two of them.

"Guys, you have an elf, with magic, remember?" Leaf asked them sarcastically. "Just let me handle this, alright?"

Thankfully, before Leaf could show magic, Jenny stops the elf before he could do anything of the sort. "Uh, Leaf! Not a good time!"

Leaf looks over to the hillside that the rock fell from. Preston was coming down from the side of the hill, coming into the view of the three people that were there. James looks at the prep who was coming down, noticing Preston was here. The prep got down to the ground, placing both of his hands behind his back, as he walked up to the three people there.

"Oh, how am I NOT surprised at all?!" James said, angry at the fact that he is seeing Preston here. "What are YOU doing here?!"

"A rather more important question, dear boy..." Preston said, before pointing and walking over to the goth. "What are YOU doing heading out of Canada? Leaving your aunt, and your mates included?"

"Really? I don't recall me and you being friends, Preston." The prep frowns a little bit, before walking pass him.

"Very well...listen, I need some help, if you may."

"Why should we help you?" Leaf asked, raising an eyebrow at Preston.

"I need some help placing this rock into the truck that I've borrowed from a close chap of mine around here. This rock is rather important for me to collect, so...if you may, I will drive the truck over here, and you will help me place this rock, into it." Preston walks backwards, waving a finger at them. "Please be patient with me before I get back."

"Well, okay, but why do you need something like..."

Before Jenny could finish what she was going to ask, Preston was already walking off to go get the truck he was talking about. James stood there with a skeptical look on his face, as Jenny and Leaf looked at each other with confusion. James looks back at his two friends.

"I don't trust this one bit, guys..." James said. "...I know he's up to something..."

"I feel something...weird is going on..." Leaf said.

"You're not the only one on this one, Leaf." Jenny said.

"No, it's not that..." The elf waves a hand, before walking over to the front of the car. "...This feeling that I'm getting, it's...it's pretty weird as hell, and...I don't know what it is...but...me and some of the other elves felt this before, like something bad is happening in this world." James and Jenny felt worried hearing that being said by the elf. "I...didn't mention this before, but...something evil is on it's way, I can really feel it in my mind."

"Something evil..." Jenny's eyes widened, knowing the only evil she knows about is Morcubus. But he's still stuck in prison, but than she looks up in horror, realizing the only person who's in MorcuCorp who's the only one missing. "...Oh shit, she's near. Esma, I should've known that we'd meet again one of these days." James looks at his girlfriend, before looking at Leaf.

"Hold on, Leaf, just to make sure that this is the same kind of thing happening..." James said. "...What does this feel like? What...what kind of thing is coming?"

"It feels...like a nightmare has actually came to life." Leaf said. James's eyes widened before he nodded his head.

"The Nightmare Realm..." James glared at the stone that fell into the middle of the street. "That son of a bitch...how am I not surprised he really is going this far."

The truck that Preston borrowed came over to the three of them, and then exits the truck. He steps out of the truck, closing the door as he did so, and headed over to the three of them. He opens the trunk, and then smiled at the three of them, innocently.

"Well...are you three going to help me lift this up, or not?" Preston asked them. Leaf leans closer to James, before patting him on the back.

"Listen, just lift the rock into the truck, I'll make sure that your suspicions are true or not." Leaf said, whispering to him. James and Jenny nodded their heads, before walking over to Preston to help him.

* * *

Meanwhile...

With Esma...

She was walking through the town, heading off to Preston's house that was right across town from the house she was using to find in. The MorcuCorp girl was walking down the streets, holding the phone in her hands, while the song '_The Look_' by Roxette was playing on it, while she was wearing a black hat, black sunglasses, a black trench-coat, and black jeans, trying to find Preston's house.

The MorcuCorp girl walked, until she finally arrived at the house that she was trying to find around here. She smirked at the house, before walking over to the front door. As Preston's car was parked in the driveway, she knew that Preston was busy, but just to make sure she sees how Beebee is doing, she went up to the front door to try to find out how she is doing at the moment.

Esma knocks on the door, as she was looking down at her phone. She went to turn the song she was listening to off, before looking forward at the front door of her house. Beebee finally answered the door, smiling with her eyes closed.

"Prezzy-Weezy, you're back!" Beebee shouts, before opening her eyes, noticing who's really here. "Oh...you're that mean lady that he is friends with. What brings you here?" Esma kept her usually smirk, before talking.

"Let's just say that me and your boyfriend were doing some plans, alright?" Esma asked her. "It's vital that I give him a visit, yes?"

"I guess. My boyfriend is still not here. He is off trying to find some sort of rock."

"Which I asked him to do, of course."

"Well, you're a big meanie." Beebee said, poking Esma on her forehead. "So you came here at the wrong time." Beebee then pulls out one of her rabbit friends out of nowhere, showing her to Esma. "You see her, bunny? I don't think you want to be friends with her." Esma raises an eyebrow, before shaking her head.

"I question how Preston is even dating you, sometimes..." Esma mutters, before looking at the girl in pink once again. "...Listen, if Preston is around, may you please tell him to meet me at his warehouse later on during the week? I have something urgent to talk to him about."

"Does it involve...the girl?"

"No, I wasn't..." Esma then took notice of what the girl was actually referring to. "Oh...the girl that me and Brandi talked to at the industrial park when all of the Evelyn Gray shit was happening...yeah...um...don't worry about that. If anything, she's still hidden inside of one of the factories in this town." Esma then steps off of the porch, glaring at Beebee. "Between you and me, she is not going to be talking for awhile."

"Oh no...don't tell me you and Preston..."

"We didn't kill her, no. All we done was...um...how do I put it without you finding this weird..." Esma pulls something out of her pocket. It appeared to be some sort of battery. "...Took her battery out."

"Oh my..."

"She's not dead. She's just going to be a little bit silent at the moment." Esma then turns around, before looking back at Beebee. "...I will be expecting Preston, quite soon..." The girl began to walk off, as Beebee stood there by the door, holding onto the door.

"You're so weird..." Beebee mutters, before closing the door.


	15. Chapter 15

Back with the regular group...

Leaf was looking inside the truck, as Preston, James, and Jenny were busy trying to get the giant rock into the back of the vehicle. Leaf opened the door without Preston noticing him looking inside his friend's truck. The elf began to look around, trying to find something that stood out to him that made it look like Preston is helping out Esma, or MorcuCorp.

The elf looked around the truck's driver seat, wondering what is in this spot that proves that Preston is helping Esma in this. He couldn't find anything in this truck, knowing that this is a truck that Preston borrowed and doesn't really own. So that's kind of the only problem when it comes to trying to find one piece of evidence that's in this truck. He continued to search through spots in the truck, until he found one item that really stood out to him.

It was a perfume bottle. Not only that, but he looks under this bottle, seeing that there's tape on the bottom, with the word 'Esma' written on it. Leaf was quite curious about why Esma would allow somebody like Preston to be holding onto something like this, but he had enough evidence to prove that Preston is up to something.

"There we go, happy? The rock is in the back of the truck." James said, clearly. "So now what do you want us to do?" Preston waves a hand, shaking his head.

"I am alright now. All I needed was your help with this rock into the truck, and..." Preston was stopped by Leaf interrupting.

"Hey, dude, not to interrupt anything but..." Leaf started to say, before pulling out the perfume bottle he has discovered. "...You mind telling me what THIS is doing inside that truck? I don't think your friend is a girl, I don't know, is also Esma?!"

Preston's eyes widened at the sight of the perfume bottle that Leaf has found. He felt the side of his pants, before growling under his breath, knowing that he was caught by these three. But before he could tell Leaf off for catching him, he held up his hands in defense, faking fear in his voice.

"Wait, what?! Where did you find that?!" Preston asked, faking his fear. "I don't know how the hell that got in the truck in the first place!" James and Jenny then glared at the prep, not buying that excuse one bit.

"Oh really? So perfume that says it belongs to Esma and NOT Beebee." James asked him, raising an eyebrow at him. "So tell us what the hell is that doing in your friend's car, huh?" Preston shook his head.

"Hold on, chap...I don't have a...I, uh...I don't..."

"You have no excuse on this one, Preston! It's pretty obvious what kind of person you are friends with, when you should know for a fact that MorcuCorp, Esma included are evil, and you have that perfume bottle that belongs to Esma in your buddy's truck! There really is no excuse for you to have this, Preston!"

"Tell us why this is even in your truck in the first place?" Leaf asked, walking closer to the prep.

"Fine, Esma told me to keep that in my pocket because..." Preston then takes the perfume from Leaf's hand, before holding it out in front of himself. "...I thought that Beebee would like it for herself."

"Some gift...as much as we should believe that, I doubt that your girlfriend would want to have something like perfume that MorcuCorp would have. Let alone what Esma would be into...what kind of perfume does Esma use anyway?" Jenny glared at James, causing him to take notice in her staring at him. "Right, that's not what we're talking about, we're talking about..."

"You and your friends are jumping to conclusions, if anything, I'm taking this perfume with me back to my house!" Preston said, before walking over to the truck. "I rather have you three leave me alone. If you may, I will be off. Go ahead, and head back to America, or wherever you're going back off to. I will be heading back to my house."

Preston gets into his truck, closing the door. He starts up his vehicle, and started to head off to where Esma is wanting to meet up with him at. James, Jenny, and Leaf stared at the truck that was driving off. Jenny and James headed over to their car.

"I'm guessing we're going after him, huh?" Leaf asked. "I doubt we can just let that psycho go out there and help out Esma, knowing that there's a chance that he is doing something that's evil, right?"

"You bet, Leaf." James said, opening his door. "Come on, dude. We're following that guy."

"Right behind you!" Leaf snaps his fingers, teleporting himself into the backseat of James's car. "Lets get a move on before he gets away." James and Jenny got into the car, then started to drive.

"Alright then. Let's finally follow that guy!" The geeky goth started to drive his car, following the prep to where he was going off to.

* * *

Esma stood there in front of one of the town's warehouses, or in this case, the one that Preston and Beebee were at before. The MorcuCorp girl looks down at her watch, wondering where Preston is, wanting him to get to this warehouse a lot more sooner than later. She kept looks down both sides of the street, getting more and more impatient.

"Where the hell is that guy? I got to get back home to watch more of that sitcom 'Friends'...what is taking that bastard so long?" Esma said to herself, as she continued to look around for the prep.

After a bit more waiting, Esma finally saw Preston's truck coming it's way over to the parking lot of the warehouse. The prep pulls up next to the MorcuCorp girl, turning off the truck, and getting out of it. He whistles for a couple workers to drive it into the warehouse.

"It's about time. I have things on TV to watch." Esma said. Preston hands the girl the perfume bottle he has.

"Take this back, please." Preston said, before walking over to the garage door to open it. "James, Jenny, and their new friend have discovered that in the perfume in the truck that I borrowed." Esma's eyes widened.

"Oh God, Preston...don't tell me they ended up figuring out about us."

"Which one, the one where me and you have been planning something, or the part where I've been cheating on Beebee?" Esma shrugged her shoulders, looking at Preston, rather bored.

"I believe it's the fact that they know that me and Brandi have an interest in perfume, despite Brandi is tomboyish, and I'm more girly than her. But maybe it's because...I'M TALKING ABOUT BOTH OF THOSE IDEAS, YOU IDIOT!" Esma says, screaming at the end of her sentence. "WHAT ELSE DO YOU THINK I'M TALKING ABOUT!"

"They don't know about the last part, however...they might be suspicious about the first thing I said, that they know we're doing something." Esma growls under her breath.

"Were you followed?"

"I doubt it. I drove off fast enough that they have no idea where I went off to. So we have nothing to worry about, Esma." The MorcuCorp girl nods her head, before turning around.

"I sure hope that you're right on this one, Preston. If you were, I'm kicking your sorry ass."

"Right."

Standing on the opposite side of the brick wall that was surrounding the entire warehouse yard, James, Jenny, and Leaf finally arrived at the yard where Preston went off to. They overheard everything that Preston and Esma were talking about while they were standing by the gate. Thankfully, Preston nor Esma took notice of them being there while they were listening to them.

"This is the least surprising shit I've seen Preston getting himself involved in...I swear to God..." James mutters, before Jenny takes a peek to see what's going on. The truck was now entering the warehouse now.

"They're entering the warehouse." Jenny said. "Now what?"

"Well, they don't know we're here." Leaf said, before pointing towards the warehouse. "Why don't we just enter this place, go find a door, and confront them?" James looks at the elf.

"...Or we could just call the cops, or SPA Agency." James said.

"That seems unlikely, James." Jenny said, looking behind herself. "Even with the SPA Agency hearing about Esma and Preston's plans, they won't make it to this time quick enough before them and Beebee leave. It looks like we're doing this by ourselves at this point." James looks over to Leaf.

"I believe this is the moment we use magic to get ourselves in a hidden spot in that yard, hmm?"

"You bet. But hold on." Leaf said, before snapping his own fingers.

The elf immediately disappeared from their spot. James and Jenny stood there, waiting for a couple seconds, before Leaf appeared once again next to them. He looks at the geeky couple, before finally speaking.

"Okay. Now you guys can come with me." Leaf said, before holding onto the two's hands, as he glowed a flash of purple.

The three of them teleported behind the warehouse. There was a couple boxes that were keeping them from being seen by the other workers around here. The elf peeks out from behind the boxes, watching two of the workers walking pass them, not noticing them. The elf then looks over to the back door, pointing at it.

"Okay, so...I don't think that there's people behind that door, and hopefully, something that can keep us from being seen by those other workers." Leaf said to the geeky couple. "Come on guys, we should get over to that door right now."

"Let's hope that this goes well." James said, as he and Jenny followed Leaf towards the back door. The three of them headed over to the back door of the warehouse, going through the door as they did such.

* * *

Meanwhile...

Petal was standing in front of Leaf's house, hoping that her elf friend was inside of his house once again. She kept a little bit of hope that Leaf was here, and nowhere else. She looks up at the house, before knocking on the door. No answer, as she was expecting.

She sighed, before entering the house again. She looks around the house, not hearing a single bit of movement around here. Not even the sound of the jukebox upstairs that Leaf would always have playing while he was home by himself. The other elves were not too thrilled with the idea of Leaf having that playing while they were visiting him.

"Leaf?! If you're actually in here, I just...really want to tell you that I'm really...really sorry for treating you how I did back there in the town nights ago..." Petal said, walking over to the stairs. "If you're here, I just hope that you understand still, not all of the elves will like the same thing that you will. I...sadly don't like it either...but...I wouldn't be as...mean as everyone else. But...you disappearing like this is not making me happy one bit." Still, nothing was said from Leaf upstairs. "I really got to be honest Leaf, I really don't..."

Petal walks up the stairs, before opening the door to Leaf's bedroom. She looks inside of it, noticing something she forgotten to take notice at before when she was searching around the house before. It was a note laying on the nightstand. She walked over to the note, wondering what was on it. Petal picks up the note, reading it to herself.

'_Whoever reads this, hopefully Petal, I just wanted to say that I'll be gone from the Forest of the Elves. But...if you're the one who found this, I placed a song in the jukebox that I hope explains my true feelings for you. I've never been able to reveal them to you in person since...to you, you'd probably find it more ridiculous than anything truly serious. The song that plays for you, just listen to it, because...I really hope that it let's you know how much you mean to me, even if I'm gone. I'm safe, but I won't be with you and the elves for awhile, or ever again. From Leaf_.' The note said.

Petal looks behind herself at the jukebox, rather curiously. She walks up to it, wondering what is even on it that Leaf wants her to hear. She walks up to the jukebox, wondering what Leaf has to put on it. She stood in front of the jukebox for a couple moments, wondering what was even going to be playing on it.

Pressing one of the buttons, a song began to play on it. The song was _'Always a Woman to_ _Me'_ by Billy Joel. Petal stood there, listening to the song by herself, as she was hearing what Leaf wanted to hear for her. Listening to the song, she stood there, tears streaming down her face, hearing the entire song play for her.

"T-This is all my fault...he...he loved me and...I just..." Petal said, trying to get words out of her mouth.

The elf girl falls to her knees, finally breaking down crying for her missing friend. She places her forehead, as she kept weeping for Leaf, not knowing where he was, or if he even made it to the humans alive. She just hope that there's a chance for her to see him again, and try to apologize in person, and hopefully start a relationship with him.

All she wanted was...Leaf...


	16. Chapter 16

Back with James, Jenny, and Leaf...

The three of them were finally inside the warehouse, ready to confront Preston and Esma on what they were doing. They kept themselves hidden behind a pile of boxes, watching Preston and Esma talking to each other on the second floor's platform above. Once they walked off to the office room that was on the second floor, the three hidden themselves behind the boxes again, and started to talk to each other, but in whispers

The prep and MorcuCorp girl walked out of the office. The two of them walked back over to the middle of the platform, holding soda cans that were from a vending machine that was inside the office. They talked to each other as they were standing there.

"Well, how long will it take for us to get that rock to get a little more stones for the new crown?" Preston asked Esma. The MorcuCorp girl took a sip of her drink.

"With two workers, I believe that this new crown is going to be made a little more quicker." Esma says, lowering her soda can. "Now all we need is some metal that is...rather rare, but Morcubus told me that he found the metal from the caves in the nearby cave area. Hopefully, there is still some in that cave after Paul, Cyrus, and Michael searched it beforehand." Preston nods his head, glaring towards the windows nearby.

"Of course there's more involvement in collecting items." Esma looks over to Preston. "Never knew that creating something as simple as the Nightmare Crown is so...difficult." Esma shrugs, before hearing a voice from nearby.

"Oh really?! You think that you can get away with this?!" The two heard Jenny's voice shouting from below them.

The two looked towards the first floor, noticing that Jenny, James, and Leaf were all standing there, glaring up at them. Thankfully, for them, the three of them were on the first floor, while they were on one the second floor. Preston scoffs, before looking away from the three of them.

"Oh we're so scared." Preston said, glaring down at the three of them. "Do you honestly think that me and Esma are scared by the likes of you three?! We're not afraid of you."

"Tease all you want, but just know, Jenny is somebody who works for the SPA Agency, so you're screwed if she tries to call them." James shouts, trying to sound threatening. Esma rolls her eyes, as she pats Preston on the shoulder, before walking away from him. The prep looks down at the three of them again. "We heard everything from behind that wall, Preston. Not only are you trying to create that Nightmare Crown with Esma, but apparently, as you said yourself, you're a cheating son of a bitch!" Preston's eyes widened hearing that last part being brought up into this argument.

"W-What the hell is THAT?!"

"By cheating, you mean cheating on a test, right?" Leaf asked James. The geeky goth slowly looked over to the elf, raising an eyebrow.

"What? By cheating, I mean..." James stops himself, before glaring up at Preston, pointing at the prep. "...Preston cheated on Beebee with Esma!" The other workers around the warehouse gasped in shock hearing that being said. "You mind explaining that part?!" Preston looks left and right, before looking down at the group below.

"Well, I believe I don't really need to tell you!" Preston shouts at them.

"Why?!"

"Because..."

Suddenly, a trap door opens up below the three of them. James, Jenny, and Leaf screamed as they fell down the trap door, as Preston stood there, shaking his head with a smirk on his face. He smiled, knowing he didn't have to let himself tell that part of his life to them. It was annoying to have to think about that, let alone tell somebody about it.

Esma came out of the office room. She actually pressed a button that was inside of the office, causing that trap door to open. Preston looks over to the girlfriend, patting the rail of the platform he was on, smiling at her.

"Thank you, Esma." Preston said.

"No problem." Esma said. "Now...back to the situation at hand, I must ask, shouldn't we go and try to collect ourselves that metal that we need for the new Nightmare Crown?" The prep bows his head, before he and her began to walk down the nearby stairs.

"Of course."

"But what about those three? Should we be worried if they escape while we're gone?" Preston shook his head, before he and Esma got into the truck that the prep borrowed.

"The trap door leads down to the basement, Esma. I doubt they have anyway of escaping from there." Preston even points at a nearby door. "The basement door is also locked, so it going to be hard for them to exit that room." Preston then looks forward. "Nothing to worry about, Esma."

"I sure damn hope so..." Esma said, before she started to drive off to the cave that she was talking about.

While the two drove, the battery that Esma had in her pocket fell out of her jacket. It fell onto the floor as the truck drove off. One of the workers, accidentally kicks the battery down into the trap door, right behind it closes all the way shut.

* * *

The elf thought that he was dead...

He was slowly opening his eyes...

He heard the sound of James and Jenny's voices, as well as some loud bangs of metal...

Slowly opening his eyes, Leaf took notice of the two of them, trying to bang on the door that was leading to the stairs. It appears that it was locked from the outside, since James was trying to use all of his strength to kick the door down. Meanwhile, Jenny was trying to look around the room for them to use to get out of here.

The elf finally woke up, taking notice of the whole situation at hand, and then Jenny looks like she was going off deeper into the basement. Leaf stood up off of the ground, rubbing the side of his arm, feeling pain inside of it as he stood up. James was still trying to kick the door down as the elf came closer to him. James finally took notice of Leaf being awake.

"Oh, Leaf...you're awake." James said, eyes widened at the elf. "...Sorry, I've been trying to get this door to be open, but nothing is happening..." Leaf gave the boy a smirk, before raising his hands.

"Dude, this is simp-ow..." Leaf said, trying to raise his arm, only for him to feel pain in his arm. "Oh crap, that fucking hurts!" James's eyes widened.

"You must've landed more terribly than I thought..."

"I fell off worse things than...whatever the hell that thing they used was..." Leaf then scoffs, standing up again. "Crap, I should've know that using magic to get that door open was not going to work. Those pricks don't even know I use magic, and they STILL found a way to get use to not escape that way." James nods his head, before he ended up hearing his girlfriend screaming from a distance.

"Uh, guys! You might want to come see this!" Jenny screams from one part of the basement.

Leaf and James ran towards the spot where Jenny was located at. The two of them searched the entire basement, until they found Jenny standing in front of what appears to be a giant cargo crate with a person on top of it.

The person doesn't appear to be moving whatsoever, considering all they were doing was sitting there, looking upward. The person has black short hair, with a black jacket, and a light gray skirt that reaches her knees. Leaf floats himself up towards the person who was on top of the cargo crate, looking down at the her. Leaf then looks over to the two geeky people behind him.

"Guys, you might want to come up here." Leaf said, as James and Jenny were climbing up the box. "It's a girl, whoever she is." Jenny then rubs her chin, noticing who this was.

"Oh God...I know who this is..." Jenny said.

"You do?"

"Yeah. Eleanor mentioned her as she was out in the Industrial Park back when Esma and Brandi were trying to take over the warehouses there." Jenny explains. "She was pretty vague about her, but all she said about her was that this girl has associations with Dr. F, and Alexa Lexington, two scientists that I actually met beforehand."

"Dr. F, and Alexa? Why would this girl have anything to do with them?" James asked. "She doesn't look like somebody who would have anything to do with those two." Jenny kneels down, then places a hand on her arm.

"Woah...I was not expecting that." Jenny then stood up from the ground, before looking over to James and Leaf. "This girl, I don't see her breathing, however...I doubt that she's dead. Feeling her arm, she's made out of metal." Jenny explains to them. "Since Dr. F and Alexa both created a robot who...ironically enough, now owns a diner, but they must've created this girl as well. The only difference is, this girl isn't like their previous robots, admittedly enough."

"So...now what?" Leaf asked, before he heard the sound of something hitting the ground behind him. "Be right back."

Leaf disappears from the sight of the two geeks, before appearing once again, this time holding the battery. Jenny took the battery that Leaf was holding. She looks at it for a couple seconds, reading what was on it. The battery said 'Makoto' on it, which has Jenny a little confused.

"Guess Esma or Preston has her battery this whole time." Jenny said, before turning the head of the robot girl.

There appears to be a hatch opened on the side of her head. A spot where batteries should be placed in was opened there. Jenny nodded her head, before placing the battery into the hatch. She closes the battery lid, before standing up, in hopes of the robot turning back on.

"Let's just hope this works..." Jenny said.

It took a bit of seconds, before the robot started to do anything. Jenny, James, and Leaf hopped off of the cargo crate, before looking up, hearing the sound of beeps and gears going off up there. The eyes of the robot open, revealing red lights coming out of them. The robot slowly stood up, as the noises still happened, and she still had the eyes glowing.

The robot stared at the three of them below, before falling off of the side of the cargo crate, closing its eyes. The three looked at the robot for a few seconds, before the robot slowly attempted to sit up. This time, the robot girl's eyes were not glowing red.

"Uh...are you okay?" James asked, hoping that the robot wasn't going to attack or kill them. The robot girl looks over to the three of them, before smiling.

"You..." The girl started off saying. "...You woke me up...you saved me..."


	17. Chapter 17

Petal was looking out to the ocean, looking out to whatever ships or boats that were out there in the distance. She wasn't going to shout for their attention, knowing that all of the other elves would think she's crazy doing that. She couldn't do anything else but stand there, wondering where Leaf was even at. All she hopes was that Leaf was somewhere that was safe.

There wasn't much more that Petal could do at the moment but wonder where in this world Leaf was even at. She was hoping to build herself a boat so that she can go and find Leaf in hopes of getting him to return to the Forest of the Elves. Petal started to head towards the castle so that she can tell the king that she needs to find Leaf. Despite he doesn't really think that Leaf is the most mature elf of the entire group, he would rely on Petal to do this for him.

During her walk towards the castle, Petal stumbles upon Pine-Cone who was just talking to a couple other female elves next to the village's market. He takes notice of Petal as she was trying to make her way to the castle. Pine-Cone walked over to the elf girl, wanting to talk to her about something before she went further.

"Hey, Petal! Wait!" Pine-Cone shouts, running up to the girl. Petal stops herself, looking over to the elf that was coming over to her. He stops in his tracks, ready to finally talk to her. "I heard from the rest of the elves that you are going around trying to find someone who is missing, may I ask who is missing?"

The elf closes her eyes, before finally speaking about what it is. "It's Leaf..."

"Leaf?"

"Yes. It's Leaf who is missing..." Petal just looks down to the ground, feeling frustrated with talking to the elf in front of her at the moment. "...Look, I have no time for this, Pine-Cone. As much as I want to stay and talk, I must go to the king so that I can inform him about Leaf's disappearance."

"...And why are you going to do that? The whole village hates Leaf! Even the king hates him!"

"IT'S BECAUSE I LOVE HIM, THAT'S WHY!"

The other villagers stopped, hearing Petal snap like that. The female elf looks around for a couple seconds, before she decided that she and Pine-Cone were better off walking to the castle instead of standing around. Petal looks back at the other villagers, holding up both of her hands.

"I'm sorry about me yelling there, everyone!" Petal says aloud to the group. "An emergency has occurred, and it's urgent that I go see the king about it. I rather not be in an argument!"

"But we never..." Pine-Cone started off saying, before Petal started to walk away with him by her side.

"...Just pretend we were, alright?" As the two continued to walk, they quietly talked to themselves as they were walking towards the castle now. "The last thing I need is for this whole village to go into a mass panic, knowing one of the elves has disappeared from the island. Everyone might hate Leaf because of his differences, but it's ridiculous to even think that one of the elves can even make it five feet off of the island." The two approached the castle's gates, stopping in front of them. "We'll talk about what our plan is after I talk to the king about what happened to Leaf, alright?" Pine-Cone was dumbfounded by what she just said.

"Wait, you're getting me involved in this? Why?!"

"Because you're the one who started that argument at the fruit tree field with Leaf, did you?"

"Yes, why?"

"If you help me, you'll be forgiven. If not, you'll be busy with fruit, vegetables, and helping the bugs for the rest of the year." Pine-Cone frowned hearing that kind of punishment for him.

"I-I hate bugs. Alright...I'll help..."

"Thank you." Petal opens the gate, before looking at Pine-Cone once again. "We're here now. As the new defender of nature, I will be the one who talks to my grandfather. If anyone who he should talk to, it should be me."

"Alright."

* * *

Back at the warehouse...

"...Are you okay?" James asked, helping the girl onto her feet.

After James and Jenny helped the robot girl onto her feet, the girl tried to regain her balance, as she was trying to stand up. Leaf helped out too. Just as the girl was able to be balanced, she smiled, then turns her head to face James and Jenny in front of her. She steps forward, looking at the couple.

"It has been awhile since I have been able to be awake again." The girl said. "W-Where are my manners, actually? My name is Makoto, I am a...I mean, I am a human, just like you, your girlfriend, and your..." Makoto looks down and up at Leaf.

"...Friend. My name is Leaf, dude." Leaf said to her.

"Your name is...Leaf...dude?"

Makoto walks over to the elf. Red lights came out of her eyes, as she was going down and up at him. Leaf raises an eyebrow, feeling rather confused by all of this, until she the lights went away. She then stood there for a couple moments, before shaking her head.

"No, you are not a leaf." Makoto said, shaking her head. "...But...you are an elf." She then smiled at that fact. "Oh...Dr. F and Alexa will be most pleased hearing that there is such a person like you in our town. They must be..." Makoto then frowns, looking around the warehouse. She then looks over to Jenny. "W-Where's Dr. F and Alexa? I thought that they would be able to find me..." Jenny cringed, before speaking.

"Listen...me and James have found you first, but..." Jenny said, before rubbing the back of her head. "...I can only assume that you had your battery taken from you when you were somewhere around here, or...who even knows where you were before today when we just got you revived." Jenny then steps forward towards the robot. "What is the last thing you remember before Esma has gotten you out here?"

"Esma?"

"Yes. The girl that, most likely, brought you here. Along with Preston, but I don't know if that asshole has any involvement with you being here or just that MorcuCorp girl took you all the way over here. But just to say, I'm Jenny. That boy is James, and the other one...it's obvious, Leaf." Jenny then looks over to the door that is locked. "Listen, I don't know how much to an extent that you know about what has happened to you, but we're trying to get ourselves out of here. Esma and Preston are trying to...from what I can only imagine, is creating another Nightmare Crown. Can you try to help us get out of here?" Makoto nods her head.

"Of course I can get us out of here."

Makoto runs over to the only door out of this basement. James, Jenny, and Leaf soon follow behind, as Makoto was trying to look around the door for something. She looks up above the door, seeing a vent that was above this door.

Makoto pulls up a box from nearby, and hops onto it, pushing the vent door out of the hatch that it was in, then crawled through it. Makoto hops inside the stairwell room that was on the other side, and unlocks the door from there. Once she opens the door, she began talking.

"I don't see an air duct on that second door up there." Makoto says, looking up at the stairs.

"Let me take care of that." Leaf said, before snapping my his fingers, causing himself to disappear.

The sound of the secondary door unlocking was heard upstairs. Jenny, James, and Makoto walked up the stairs, noticing Leaf was the one who ended up unlocking the door for them. Leaf opens the door, smiling at the three of them, then waved.

"Easy enough." Leaf said. "Now lets go guys, we got to find Esma and Preston right now."

"But how do we know where those two are?" Makoto asked, walking through the second door out. "They could be anywhere in this town." Jenny walked over to two of the workers, before grabbing one of them.

"Hey! I'm trying to find where Preston and Esma went off to! I'm a member of the SPA Agency, now tell me, where are those two in this town?" Jenny asked them, glaring at the worker she was standing in front of.

"But you two are suppose to be trapped in the base..." The worker said, before Jenny grabbed the worker onto the collar, pulling him closer to him, as she was glaring into his eyes.

"TELL ME WHERE THEY ARE!" Jenny yells at him.

"Okay, okay! They are at the caves nearby! Just don't tell them I told you!"

"Thank you!" Jenny then looks over to her friends. "Come on, I believe I know where that cave is. Agent Walker told me how the Nightmare Crown was made, and there should be a cave with the metal that is needed for the crown near this town." James nods his head.

"Alright! My car should be nearby, last time I remember!" James said, pulling his car-keys out of his pocket. "Come on guys, lets get to the car and head to the cave Jenny's talking about!" James, Leaf, Jenny, and Makoto all ran out of the warehouse, heading over to the car that James owned.

* * *

Back with Petal...

The female elf finally got into the castle. They were told by the guards that the king was laying down in his bed upstairs. So the two went up the stairs, heading to the corridor that was above the throne room.

Petal made it to the door that leads into the kings bedroom. Her grandfather sat there on the side of his bed, looking down to the floor. Petal walks into the room, causing the king to look up at her as she walked into his view.

"Grandfather, you are not in the throne room as I was hoping you'd be." Petal said. "Is something the matter?" The king nods.

"Yes, Petal." The king said. "Remember a couple years ago, we experienced the feeling of some sort of...darkness that has opened somewhere?" Petal blinks a couple times, before nodding her head. "I believe that I felt that feeling again..."

"But...none of us felt it this time..."

"It seems I must be the only one, now that the gem is nowhere in my reach." Petal looks down at the gem she was given days ago. "Petal, my dear...I don't think I have much time left. This time, the feeling of this evil has affected me so hard this time, and given my age, it was hazardous to my health." Petals eyes began to water.

"G-Grandfather...y-you can't die now...I need you more than ever..."

"There there, sweetie." Petals grandfather said to her, patting her shoulder. "I will always be with you, even after I die."

"I-I know...but..." Petal wipes her eye. "I fear that I won't be able to be with you when...it is because of...Leaf..." Petal wipes tears from her eyes, trying to keep control of herself as she talked. "...He's missing from the island, and...I don't know if he is either dead, or...he is missing around the ocean." The king looked at Petal with a shocked look in his eyes.

"My word..."

"I don't know how Leaf got off of an island like this without getting caught. But he somehow found a way to do just that, according to Petal." Pine-Cone said, crossing his arms.

"He must've found the book..."

"What book?"

"The one that had the only way to get off of the island." The king shook his head as he picks up his cane, standing up from the bed. "Leaf must've found it around the book store, when the store owner was meant to return it to the castle."

"Guess he got lazy, huh?"

"Pine-Cone, this is serious..." The king attempted to stand himself up, before falling back down onto the bed. "Leaf doesn't know what kind of danger is out there in that world for him to be out there." Petal stood up from the bed, looking at the king.

"Well, grandfather, if you're sick, I don't think you should be going over there. Especially with this evil feeling that you felt by whatever it is that caused that feeling years ago." Petal said to him. "If anything, I should be going over there. I...caused him to go over there in the first place, and as the new protector of Nature, I should be the one to go over there to try to get Leaf back here." Pine-Cone looks at Petal, raising an eyebrow.

"Petal, you can't just go out there alone. I need to come with you." Pine-Cone said.

"Thank you." Petal looks over to the king, before holding onto his hand. "I'll be back here before you go grandfather. I promise." The king smiled at his granddaughter, before nodding his head.

"Keep the gem I've given you close to yourself, and remember...I've always believed in you." The king said.

Petal nods her head, as another tear rolled down her eye. She slowly lets go of the kings hand, before she and Pine-Cone headed out the door to head out back to the village to try to get that book from the book store that Leaf used to make his portal before. It's the only way that Petal and Pine-Cone can even get to where Leaf is.


	18. Chapter 18

It wasn't hard for Preston or Esma to find this cave that Morcubus and his companions were at to collect metal to build the Nightmare Crown. The two drove the truck through the forest, looking around for the cave, until the second hill they saw during the drive, they found the cave to the right. They parked the truck, and walked over to the cave.

Preston took a flashlight that was inside the truck, bringing it inside the cave for the two of them to see through the darkness. The two began walking through the cave, ready to find some metal for the crown to be created. During the walk, Esma keeps looking backwards at the entrance, hoping to not discover the three people who confronted them were following them right now.

"You sure we have nothing to worry about? It seems like any situation the SPA Agents are in, they tend to get out of it pretty easily." Esma asked, whispering harshly towards Preston. "Those three even figured out about you cheating on Beebee with me."

"Esma, relax. Those three are not leaving the basement." Preston said to her. "Jenny, James, nor that other guy they are with will ever get out of that basement without the keys, or any of the workers allowing them to come out of there."

"I hope they wont even attempt to help those three. Morcubus is counting on me to try to finish the Nightmare Crown, and finish what he started." Esma then looks around the spot they were at right now. "Son of a bitch...Morcubus never told me where the metal is even located in this cave. All he had to say was that himself and a couple of his buddies were out here looking for some in this cave alone." Preston mutters something, before turning his head towards the girl he was with.

"I believe this would've been a lot more easier if we brought along a couple of the workers back in the warehouse?"

"You think?"

Little did the two of them knew, James, Leaf, Jenny, and Makoto all arrived at the cave. It wasn't too hard to find the truck that Preston was using to get to this cave, especially when it came to it being the in the forest. The four of them got out of the car, and headed over to the cave.

James runs over to the trunk of his car, looking around for a flashlight to bring with him. Makoto looks inside of the cave, while Leaf was walking up to the side of the robot girl as she was investigating the cave's entrance. The two stood by, as James was still looking through the trunk of his car, looking for a flashlight. He finally found one, then ran ahead of the others so that he can lead the way.

"Alright...found a flashlight guys! Let's go get those pricks." James said, as he entered the cave.

"Dude, wait for us!" Leaf said, as the three others entered the cave with him.

* * *

Upon entering the cave, James kept leading the way, as the Jenny, Leaf, and Makoto were walking behind him. Leaf was the only one standing next to Makoto as they were walking through complete darkness. He seemed pretty uneasy with the girl, despite the fact that she was on their side at the moment. He kept his eyes on her as they were walking through the darkness.

The four arrived at what appears to be a trench that had a bridge made out of wood going across it. James looks down, aiming the flashlight down into the trench, seeing nothing from their spot. There were a couple lights were and there at this spot, most likely because Morcubus needed some light so that they can see when crossing the bridge.

The four started to cross the bridge. Leaf kept looking down the bridge, keeping his balance as they were all crossing it. The elf then looks behind himself, seeing Makoto that was following the three of them as she was looking around the cave spot they were at. Leaf raises an eyebrow, glaring at her.

"Hey, you mind picking up the pace?" Leaf asked. "It's just your average cave with a trench and bridge."

"You're acting like this is normal." James said. "This is stuff that me and Jenny would see in Tomb Raider or something." Leaf raises an eyebrow, confused by that. The geeky goth looks forward. "Right...you don't know what that is yet. You'll figure out what that is once we handle Preston and Esma." James then looks behind himself again. "...Just...uh...try to keep up the pace."

"I am." Leaf then rubs the back of his neck, keeping his eyes on the two first friends in front of him. "I don't mean to question you guys, especially the girl we saved, but...how do we know she's even trustworthy yet? I mean, what if she's working for those two?"

"I know who Makoto is, Leaf." Jenny said, looking behind herself. "I know her because Eleanor met her at the Industrial Park when Esma and Brandi were there. There's nothing to worry about when it comes to her." Leaf shrugged.

"Sorry, I just don't know anything about...whoever that Dr. F and Alexa girl that you guys are talking about." Leaf said. "Are they like...crazy scientists?"

"Well...Dr. F is a bit...excitable when it comes to science. Alexa is probably more calmer than him, and...T.O.B.O.R. is her cousin, so if anyone to ask if it comes to figuring out if Makoto is a colleague or not on MorcuCorp's side, it's him, despite he can get sarcastic and annoyed with many things." Jenny looks forward, hearing the sound of a bang from a distance. James held up a hand, looking up, hearing that voice.

"Damn it, Preston! That could've kill us!" Esma's voice from the distance shouts.

"My apologies! I only have one flashlight!" Preston shouts back.

"They're close." Jenny said. "We should keep going."

"I think we should also be careful what fell." James said, starting to walk again. "I can't imagine how old this cave actually is, considering I have no idea when that Nightmare Crown was even made."

"I believe Walker said something about it being made in the seventies or eighties." Jenny said to her boyfriend. "When I was walking into Morcubus's house back in our town, let's just say that there were posters of Cat Stevens, BeeGees, KC and the Sunshine Band, Queen...so I assume the three of them were creating it around that time, since I think Morcubus ran off to BearTown after Sir Alder confronted him on this." Jenny shrugs her shoulders. "So I can only assume it's around that time, the Nightmare Crown was made."

As the four of them were walking across the bridge, Makoto continued to look around the cave they were in, before hearing a cracking noise below her feet. She looks down, seeing one of her feet, stepping on a broken board. She gasps, before Leaf looks behind himself, hearing her gasp.

The board broke immediately before she could get off of it in time. Makoto fell right through the bridge, causing Jenny and James to look behind them in horror. Leaf runs over to the hole in the bridge, jumping into the hole to save Makoto, causing the geeky couple to shout Leaf's name in shock. James covers his mouth in shock, as Jenny stared down the hole, shaking her head in horror.

Inside the darkness of the trench, Leaf was falling straight down, hands glowing purple as he was going after Makoto as she was falling. He throws a hand down, causing a line of purple light to go down towards the robot girl as she was falling. The light was able to grab Makoto just in time. Leaf levitates himself, and Makoto out of the trench.

"Do you see them?" James asked his girlfriend.

"I don't know. It's too dark." Jenny said.

"Did you guys forget I could levitate?" Leaf asked, with Makoto floating next to him with a purple light keeping her levitating in the air.

James and Jenny looked to the right, seeing the two of them were actually safe and alive. They floated to the other side of the bridge, as James and Jenny finally made it to the other side. Leaf gently lets Makoto down onto her feet, causing her to smile at him.

"My hero..." Makoto said, smiling at him. Leaf stared at her, before shrugging his shoulders.

"Ah, thanks..." Leaf said, before looking down to the ground. "That's the first time somebody's actually called me that." Leaf then looks over to the cave out of this room. "Well, there's the next cave, come on...we should probably go find those two in that room somewhere."

"Let's just hope we're not too late to stop them." James says, as he, Jenny, Leaf, and Makoto all went into that cave room.


	19. Chapter 19

So with Petal once again...

The elf was trying to find the book that Leaf used to get to the human area of the planet. By the looks of it, it doesn't really seem like it's anywhere on the shelf. Petal kept looking through the shelves at a fast rate, trying to find this book, as Pine-Cone was looking around for it as well.

"Where did he put that book?" Petal asked, looking around the book store, before looking over to the elf who was helping her. "Did you found the book yet?"

"I don't see it anywhere!" Pine-Cone said, looking inside the same barrel Leaf hidden himself in before. Pine-Cone pulls himself out of the barrel, before walking over to Petal. "You think Leaf brought it with him to his house?"

"I doubt Leaf would bring a book to his house."

"Well, it was just a thought." Pine-Cone leans on the bookshelf he was standing next to, accidentally shaking it.

On top of the shelf, a book fell onto the ground, right behind Petal. The noise of the book hitting the ground behind her made the elf jump in fear where she's standing. The female elf looks behind herself, before running over to the book, picking it up.

She looks through the book, until she found the page that she was looking for. She flipped through the pages, until she found the one with the vortex that Leaf took to get to Canada. She stood up, before nodding her head at what the page was saying. After enough memorizing what to do, she places the book back onto the shelf, then looks over to Pine-Cone.

"Alright. I know how to do a portal like that. It's simple." Petal said. "We got to warn the other villagers that Leaf is missing."

"You're acting like they'd care." Pine-Cone said to her.

"Well they have to know why I am leaving, despite the king putting me in charge of the gem after he dies. They have to know where you're heading off to as well, considering that you are the one who defends the island's raccoons."

"Good point."

"Right. So we have to go tell the other villagers about what me and you are going off to."

"Alright alright...lets just go do that..."

"Great." Petal and Pine-Cone ran out of the book store, ready to tell the other villagers about what's going on.

* * *

Back with Preston and Esma...

The two arrived at what appears to be a spot with a table, and a couple ladders, heading up to a higher spot in this cave. Esma smirked, looking up at the higher platform of rocks that had another table with a couple bags on top of it. She points up, as she approaches the ladder.

"Keep a light shining up there. I know where Morcubus kept a couple pieces of metal that was left behind by mistake when he, Paul, Cyrus, and Michael were here last." Esma said. "It'll be quick." Preston looks behind himself, making sure there was nobody coming down here, before shining the flashlight upward. Preston than stood by, keeping the flashlight in the air.

"Alright." Preston said.

Esma climbed up the ladder, heading up to the top platform of the cave where the metal was located at. She ran over to the table that was up there. Turning on the lantern that was conveniently on the table up there, Esma notices the bags of metal that was on the table, causing Esma to nod her head.

"Exactly where I expect them to be at." The MorcuCorp girl said, before picking the bags up. "Just so happy that I get to collect the last few bags that were abandoned before the first Nightmare Crown was made."

She started placing some of the bags into her jacket as she was collecting them. Esma took all of the bags that were still there, before walking over to the ladder to climb down them. Once she was down near Preston again, the two were about to go out of the cave room they were in.

But before they could leave, James, Jenny, and Leaf came into the cave section, stopping the two before they could go anywhere. Preston and Esma stopped in their tracks, shocked to see that the three of them were out of the basement. Esma growled to herself, before pointing at the three of them, angry that they were here right now.

"How the hell did you three escape?!" Esma asked, angrily.

"With the help of one of your...friends." Jenny said, glaring at Esma.

"One of those workers at the warehouse allowed you to leave?! Those pricks, I swear, I'm going to kick their asses when me and Preston get back to that building!" Jenny shook her head.

"Oh no, it's not one of those workers at that warehouse. We're talking about the girl we happen to have found down there." Esma's eyes widened when Jenny said that.

"You don't mean..."

"Makoto? In a matter of a fact, yes I do."

Esma gasps as Makoto came walking into the cave section, glaring at the two that James, Jenny, and Leaf were confronting in here. The MorcuCorp girl shook her head, slowly narrowing her eyes at the sight of the robot girl in front of her. Makoto than glares at Preston. The robot than spoke, before waving a fist at the MorcuCorp girl.

"You, Esma! First, you and Brandi trick me into trying to have you take the warehouses in your town, now...this?" Makoto asked, berating her. "You stole my battery, and I have been away from Dr. F and Alexa for so long, I don't even know if they are either older or dead." Esma shook her head, glaring at the robot, walking up to her.

"You don't scare me, Makoto." Esma said, viciously at her. "If I had the chance, you would've been used to turn into the crown." Esma than looks at the three who confronted her and Preston first. "Now look here you three pricks, I don't know how the hell you think you're going to take me on, but I can tell you one thing, you three are weak. Me and Preston by just be two people, but we have a Nightmare Crown to build, and that will be enough to have your asses down within seconds." Jenny shook her head.

"I'm still work at the SPA Agent!" Jenny said, glaring at the MorcuCorp girl. "I can just pull my phone out and tell Agent Walker that you guys are up to something, and you will regret ever coming up with this second Nightmare Crown..." Esma pulls out a pistol from her jacket, aiming it at Jenny.

"Except me and Preston can just kill you right here, right now, and we'll be on our way!"

"Not if I have anything to say about..." Preston balls up his first, just as James stepped closer ready to stop Esma.

"Or I'll stop you, James." Preston said.

"Then I'll stop you, and Esma!" Leaf said, holding up his hand causing purple magic to come out of it. Leaf then realized that he is using magic in front of Esma and Preston, as they were staring at him with shock looks. "Ah crap..."

"Hello...you have magic somehow..." Esma said, giving the elf a smirk as she walked up to him. "...Now how is this possible?" Leaf lowers his hand, stopping his magic.

"Uh...I don't know...you asked me! You must be seeing things! This cave is kind of hot anyways, am I right? It's pretty cold up here, but..." Esma glared at the elf, before pulling him closer to his face, glaring at him.

"Tell me how you're magical!"

Out of nowhere, Esma was pushed to the ground by Jenny. She lets go of Leaf once she was pushed. Preston's eyes widened, before he glared at the geeky goth he was standing next to. James's girlfriend pushing the girl he cheated on Beebee pushed him to fight him.

James dodges a punch that he threw, before kicking Preston in his leg. Esma got off the ground, and then pushes James onto the ground. Preston ran up to James ready to continue his fight, only for Leaf to throw magic at him, causing the prep to fly straight into the wall. Esma glared at Leaf, charging at him, before Makoto taps the girl on her shoulder, causing Esma to look behind herself, and being punched by the robot. Esma fell to the ground.

"That was the first time I actually used magic to fight someone." Leaf said. "I thought Pine-Cone was going to be the first person I do that to. Jokes aside, now what?" Jenny looks at Makoto who has took the bags of metal from Esma. She hands the bags over to Jenny.

"Looks like we can leave. Without these bags of metal, they can't make that crown at all." Jenny said. "Come on, we should probably get to the car now." Jenny then looks over to Makoto. "Didn't expect you to punch that girl, dude. That was crazy."

"I never say anything too mean, but Esma had it coming ever since she ended up friends with Morcubus." Makoto said, nodding her head.

"Right. Come on guys, lets go."

The four of them ran out of the cave, heading off to James's car. The group ran through the corridor back to the bridge, jumped over the hole that was in the middle of the bridge, then headed out of the entrance. Once they got into the car, they headed back into the town.

During the drive, James began to speak to Leaf while they were heading back to the town they were at before. "You didn't have to show magic like that to them, dude." James said. "Now Esma and Preston are aware of there being an elf in this town."

"I know I should have done that! But...I had to." Leaf said. "I mean...Jenny could've been dead, and you were about to get your ass kicked...I had to do something to defend you guys." Leaf then looks down at his hands. "Truthfully...I was afraid of you guys dying, and...I had to live with the fact that I screwed something up. I'm already somebody who screws shit up back in the Forest of the Elves."

James looks down, before sighing to himself. He felt like the next stop, he will just have to talk to Leaf about the whole ordeal and how it went down. He was also kind of curious on why Leaf decided to leave the Forest of the Elves in the first place. The geeky goth sighed once again, before focusing on the road.

* * *

Back at the Forest of the Elves, it was about time for Petal to try to tell the other elves about the disappearance of Leaf. She got on top of a pile of boxes that were in front of one of the stores, and then stared out to a couple of the villagers who were standing by. They were talking among themselves, not knowing about what had happened in the past few days.

Wanting their attention now, Petal whistles for them to look at her. The villagers heard the whistle, causing all of them to look straight at Petal after she did that. With all the villagers attention on her, Petal began to speak, while pulling out the gem the king gave her.

"Other elves! I need to tell you all something very vital that has occurred on our island!" Petal said as loud as she could. "Leaf has disappeared a couple days ago..."

After she said that, the other elves immediately felt like ignoring her after she mentioned Leaf. The female elf shook her head. She knew that the villagers would ignore her once she brought Leaf into the conversation. Now she has no other choice but to finally show them the gem.

She held the gem the king has in her hands, making all of the elves look at her, surprised. They knew that the king is the one who has that gem, and even owns it. None of them could even believe that somebody like Petal even have something like that with her. As she held the gem in her hands, one of the elves came forward, pointing at the female elf.

"How do you have the king's gem that he uses to defend nature?!" One of the villagers asked her.

"Because...I am his granddaughter!" Petal said, looking at that villager. "He trusts me with the gem, since he is...moments away from dying. His time is almost up, and he handed me this gem, knowing I would be trustworthy enough to defend you all, and the rest of the island from any harm that comes to attack nature!" It was at that moment, Pine-Cone stood up onto the pile of boxes, looking at the villagers.

"She's telling you all the truth!" Pine-Cone said. "I was with her at the castle when the king was sick on his bed! I heard what he had to say about his granddaughter, and...I have to admit, I was shocked too." Petal nods her head.

"Now, for Leaf, I...I know he is a bit of a...person who messes up a lot...but he means well. He's a very nice person deep down, regardless of whether or not, he is lazy, or a bit of a silly person, but...regardless of that, he has a different interest from the rest of us, and we made him leave out village because of it." Petal then looks down at the gem in her hand. "...I...I was against him when he was asking me to side with him, when he needed a friend the most..." The female elf closes her eyes, before stepping off of the box pile. "...So it should be in my will to go and get him back here to our island. Me and Pine-Cone will do whatever it takes to bring him back, safe and sound, before whatever evil feeling the king felt..." Petal stays silent, before one of the villagers came forward.

"The evil feeling that we all felt years ago? What if you and Pine-Cone never return?!" The villager asked. Petal looks down at the gem in her hand.

"Then so be it..." Petal said softly, before walking off with Pine-Cone to go off to go create a portal to head to the human section of the world.

It took awhile, before the two could actually create a portal for themselves to get to the human's section of the world. Petal and Pine-Cone looked down at the portal that was there between Leaf's house, and the nearest boulder. Petal took a deep breath, feeling nervous about this.

"You really sure that this is going to bring us to where Leaf is?" Pine-Cone asked her.

"I believe we should be lucky if it does or not." Petal said, looking down at the portal, unsure with where it is going to bring them to. "But we're going to have to hope that this portal sends us to the place in this world where Leaf is located at. He could literately be anywhere in this entire world, but...I just hope that Leaf is on the other side of this one."

Petal closes her eyes, before she jumped into the portal. Pine-Cone gulps, before hopping into the portal, following Petal. After they both jumped into there, the portal disappeared from the ground.

* * *

Meanwhile...

Esma sat up from being knocked out. She glares over to Preston, who was still feeling hurt from that whole fight. She stood up, before walking over to Preston, looking down at him, just as he was getting up from the ground.

"Get up, Preston. It looks like Jenny and those three other pricks got away." Esma said, pulling the prep onto his feet. "We got to get where they are before they get too far from us." Preston rubs his head, nodding, before looking to the ground.

"How long were we out?" Preston asked.

"How the hell should I know?! Also, there's really no time for that question, we got to find those four right now. They have the bags of metal we need to build the crown." The prep got off of the ground, then the two of them started to run out of the cave.


	20. Chapter 20

With Leaf, the group stopped at a gas station. James and Jenny were both inside the building, collecting some gas for the car, while Leaf waited outside with Makoto. James was about to talk to Leaf like he promised, but he wasn't able to, due to the fact that he needed gas for his car. Jenny even told him that it's for the best to wait until the next stop for that conversation.

So Leaf stood by the car, looking at both sides of the roads, making sure that he wasn't seeing either Preston or Esma coming towards their way. The elf held the side of his head as he was thinking about Petal to himself. The song '_Time After Time_' by Cyndi Lauper was playing on the gas station's outdoor radio, as he was thinking about Petal to himself, wondering if she even knows, or cares, that he is even gone from the Forest of the Elves.

Makoto actually took notice of Leaf standing rounding, thinking to himself as he was looking up at the sky. She was looking over to the elf as she was standing by the corner of the car. She walks up to Leaf.

"You seem pretty depressed, Leaf." Makoto said, standing next to him now. Leaf looks at her, blinking a couple times. "What seems to be the matter?"

"Me? Depressed? No way, dude! I'm as happy as I can be." Leaf said. "Well...aside from the fact that two psychos now know I have magic..." Leaf held up a hand, as an orb of purple light started to float out of it. "...Now they probably want to kill me for that magic, but...hey, they don't know that all you have to do is to do this to get a bunch of flowers to grow."

Leaf snaps his fingers, causing the nearby tree to have flowers grow out of it immediately. The elf then throws a hand towards the tree, allowing that magic beam of purple light to collect a couple flowers off of the tree. Once a couple were collected, the flowers came back to Leaf. Makoto took the flowers that were from the tree, smiling at them.

"I must say, this is rather amazing." Makoto said. The robot's eyes turned red as she was looking at the flowers. "I do sense magic was the reason that these have grown as fast as they did." Leaf rolled his eyes, before giving the girl a smirk.

"Hey, it doesn't take one to know that magic is magic, my friend." Leaf said. "Kind of sucks that Preston and Esma now know about me having magic. But hey, knowing that Jenny is working for that SPA Agency or...whatever she just said moments ago, I doubt we have anything too badly to worry about now that we got those rare metal used for that crown, right?" Makoto nods her head. "What are we going to do with that metal anyway?"

"Since you are asking me, I believe that Alexa Lexington could put it to some use."

"Right...so...after Esma and Preston are taken care of, what are you going to do after that? Because me and James were just planning on going to whatever town he lives at. Enjoy the rest of my life there."

Looking down, Makoto stood there, thinking about that to herself. "...Hopefully, make sure that Dr. F and Alexa are alive..." Leaf sat down onto the hood, looking at Makoto still.

"Right...you've been pretty vague about those two ever since we've gotten you out of that warehouse..." The elf points at the robot girl, giving her a suspicious look. "Now I have never heard of those two, but...I assume that somehow, they are the closest people you have as...how do I put it, a 'guardian'? Somebody who looks after you, right?"

"That would be correct."

"Right. Okay, when was the last time you even seen those two? Like, before Esma somehow took you from them?" Makoto looks down to the ground below her, remembering that day, when Esma found her...

* * *

_A couple months back..._

_Makoto was still wearing the exact same clothes as she did before. She was sitting in what appears to be a lab room, with a lot of machines everywhere. The robot girl woke up already, and she was ready to go and do something for today. She didn't know what, but she was willing to leave the lab once again. _

_Dr. F, the man with extremely white hair and mustache, goggles, a white lab-coat and black dress pants, was looking through a couple machines, seeing if they work or not. Alexa was standing by a nearby counter, looking at a clipboard. She has short purple hair, with glasses, a white lab-coat, a red t-shirt with a pink bunny on the front of it, a black skirt, and baggy plaid pants. _

_Makoto walks down the steps that were leading down to where the two scientists were at. Dr. F was busy trying to get one of the machines to work, while Alexa that was looking at a toy robot that was on the counter. Alexa looks behind herself, noticing that Makoto that was coming down the steps. _

_"Oh, Makoto." Alexa said, before turning around, straightening her glasses. "What brings you downstairs, this morning?"_

_"I was just going to collect myself some breakfast, and head outside." Makoto said. Alexa looks at her clipboard, before looking at the robot once again._

_"I just hope you're not planning on going to that club that was inside that warehouse again. Dr. F is still unhappy with the fact that a couple teens were running around the alley-way next to the lab, mocking him and the building." The robot girl shook her head, not wanting to do that kind of plan. "Oh okay, where will be you be going out today?" _

_"Oh nothing, but I've been noticing something in the Industrial Park that I need to have brought to the Eleanor Myers. It has been something that I have been noticing it for quite some time now." Makoto walks over to the steps, then looks over to Alexa once again. "I need to tell it to her before things escalated any worse than it has to be." Alexa lowers her clipboard down, looking at the robot with concern on her face._

_"Eleanor Myers? The agent who came into our lab back in 2010? What are you going to tell her?"_

_"It involves a certain...person that I need to tell her about. I just hoped that she is at the SPA Agency when I go to tell her about what I have to tell her." Makoto walks over to the stairs, about to climb up them. "I have to go to the SPA Building so that I can tell them about this one person before it's too late..." Alexa nods her head, now understanding the whole situation._

_"Alright. Be safe out there, Makoto." The robot nodded her head._

_"Don't worry, I will." _

_Makoto headed out of the lab building. Little did she know, this day was going to be attacked by said person she is about to bring to the SPA Agency. Seeing that there wasn't anyone around the Industrial Park, she started to make her way to this section's exit._

_Along the way, Makoto was hearing the sound of footsteps behind her. The robot kept hearing the footsteps getting closer and closer while she was walking to the monorail station nearby. Makoto kept getting more and more concern as she was walking towards the stairs out to the monorail station, only for the sound of trash cans falling over were heard nearby. _

_Looking behind herself, Makoto didn't see anyone who was over there. Seeing that there was nobody around, it was too late for her to do anything, as Esma from behind Makoto kicks her to the ground, and opens the hatch that was keeping Makoto's battery in her head. _

_"Did you honestly think that someone like you was going to try to give me up to the SPA Agents?" Esma asked her. "Guess again, pal..."_

_Esma takes the battery out of Makoto, causing the robot to try to stop her, only for it to not work. Slowly, Makoto slowed down. Then her eyes went from being normal, to close, and the fearful look on her face slowly turned into a face of no emotion. Esma took a look at the battery, seeing that it has Makoto's name on it. _

_"Those two scientists will be curious where this robot girl went off to." Esma said, before pulling out her phone, and placing the battery into her jacket. "I got to call Preston so that I can bring this robot off to the warehouse up in Canada."_

* * *

"Damn, she really did that?" Leaf asked the robot girl with fear in his voice.

"I had no idea what Esma was really capable of." Makoto said. "I must say her strength was rather better than mine back in the Industrial Park...I don't recall what month it is...but I remember it was...around Halloween when Esma had my battery with her." Leaf's eyes widened, seeing that Makoto was kept in that warehouse for a very long time. "From what James's phone said, it's June now...and I've been...oh no...I've been gone for that long? They really must be worried about me...they probably think I ran away from my home."

"Hey, don't worry about that. I'm sure that after all of this bullshit with Esma and Preston, you'll be able to go home to Dr. F and Alexa." Makoto nods her head. "By the way, just want to say, your strength is way better than that bitch, I'll give you that." Makoto looks down, blushing.

"Thank you." Makoto smiled, looking at Leaf. "I...honestly was expecting those scientists to actually save me however..." Makoto giggles a little bit. "...Not a boy, a girl, and...an elf."

"Well, I didn't expect to actually save the life of a robot." Leaf said, chuckling back. "I mean, twice, if the warehouse thing counts. That time in the cave, I totally did save you." Makoto turns her head the other way, tapping the side of her chin, smiling and blushing.

"I never expected to be saved by an elf." Makoto then looks away for a couple more seconds, before looking at Leaf again. "By chance, are you...thinking about...dating anytime soon?"

Leaf's eyes widened immediately when that was asked to him. He knew that question means that Makoto is wanting to date him. He can tell it was from a mile away. He still had feelings for Petal, which makes that question even more awkward for him to answer. He held up a finger, before he fell backwards off of the car on purpose.

"Are you okay?" Makoto asked.

"Yes...I am..." Leaf said, laying on the ground, looking at the sky. "...Makoto...this is going to be awkward for me to even say after you ask me that, but..."

"Alright guys, we got the gas." James said, walking out of the gas station with Jenny following him. He took notice of Leaf laying there on the ground. "Dude, what are you doing on the ground? We're suppose to be heading off back to our town, not looking at the sky." Leaf snaps his fingers, making himself stand up off of the ground.

"Sorry about that. I was just talking to Makoto out here, and it ended with me landing on the ground." Leaf shrugs. "Either way, glad to know we got ourselves some more gas for the car now."

"Yep." Jenny said, as James was pouring the gas can into his car now. "Thankfully, we have enough gas to try to make it back to our hometown. It might be night when we find our first motel, like me and James had last time. But who knows, hopefully, we can end up in America before sundown."

"Who knows." Leaf said, chuckling nervously, before looking over to Makoto, who was sitting there, seemingly disheartened by the fact that Leaf didn't answer her question to her. "Uh, ha ha...why don't we just get in the car now?" Makoto nods her head, softly.

"Of course..." The robot said, softly, before everyone got into the car.


	21. Chapter 21

Back at the ski-resort, Professor Nova was sitting outside the building, holding a cup of hot cocoa in her hands. She was looking up at the cloudy sky, seeing nothing but snow coming down from them. But just as she was sitting there, feeling bored, ends up getting a shocking discovery happen above the ski-resort.

The vortex that Petal and Pine-Cone opened above the trees, as the two mentioned elves flew out of the portal. Petal landed face-first into the snowy ground below, and Pine-Cone next to her. The two stood up off of the ground, and then looks over to the ski-lodge building that Nova was sitting at. Professor Nova took notice of the two elves that have came out of the vortex, just as the portal disappeared.

Nova ran over to the two elves, just as they were getting up from the ground. She ran, helping the two onto their feet, in hopes that they are okay. Petal crushes herself off, noticing that there was a human coming over to them.

"I don't think..." Petal said, before brushing herself again. "...Me and Pine-Cone are here to find a friend of ours around here. I assume that he must be in this part of the world. If you saw anything, you haven't seen anything."

"Are you elves just like..." Nova asked, rather quickly, and surprised by what she just saw.

"Elves?! You know about elves?!" Pine-Cone asked her. "How did you even know before we even introduced ourselves?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Nova points to Pine-Cone's ear, showing it to be just as pointed like Leaf's ears were. "...I seen an elf at the ski-resort days ago. You must be his friends, aside from my nephew and his girlfriend."

"You mentioned an elf came to this...location...does he have messy gray hair, with a green hat? He never wears a shirt under his jacket? Does that ring any bells?" Petal asked the older woman. "Me and Pine-Cone are trying to find him, because we're protectors of nature. I know us elves are suppose to be keeping these things to ourselves, but this is really all I can say, also because it's urgent for me and my friend to find Leaf and bring him back." Nova seemed a little concern for her nephew if he were to end up in trouble with these elves if he is found by them.

"I did say my nephew was actually friends with Leaf, as well as his girlfriend." Petal blinked a couple times, before looking at the girl again.

"Uh...by girlfriend, does Leaf have one now, or do you mean your nephew?"

"My nephew is dating. Leaf doesn't seem to have any sort of girlfriend with him when he came to the ski-resort. Or was with James, I mean." Nova points to the road out to the forest. "They should be in the next town, or heading back to America right now. I don't exactly know where they are at the moment in this part of the world." Petal looks down, shaking her head.

"Great, I thought that you meant..." Petal shook her head, not wanting to reveal her crush on Leaf to a strange just yet. "...Nevermind. Listen, I already said that it's urgent for us to be getting Leaf back to the Forest of the Elves, considering your nephew and his girlfriend are probably going to be who we are looking for, do you mind telling us what they look like?"

"My nephew has short black hair and a black jacket, while his girlfriend has long black hair with a dark blue beret on her head. They should be driving a dark blue car right now."

"A car? Never heard of that." Pine-Cone said.

"Oh, those things shouldn't be too hard to find. They are pretty much everywhere. Just find a giant thing on the road with wheels." Nova points to a car that was literately in the parking lot of the ski-resort. "They looks like this."

Pine-Cone walks up to the car, tapping the hood of the vehicle, hoping that it wasn't a threat to themselves. Once he taps the hood of the car, never happens to him. He took a sigh, before he turns to Petal, giving her a thumbs up. Petal shook her head, before facing Nova again.

"Thank you, and...don't worry about us punishing you or your nephew for having Leaf around him. We won't do anything about that." Petal said, bowing her head, before walking off to the street. "Come on Pine-Cone, we got to go find Leaf now." Nova nods her head.

"Of course, of course." Nova said.

As Petal and Pine-Cone headed down the road, Nova headed inside of the ski-resort so that she can talk to James on the phone. She didn't want to have Petal and her friend go to him without a warning.

* * *

Sitting in the car, it was almost nighttime while James was driving his group back to town. It was pretty silent in the car as they were driving along the dark road ahead of them. There was a motel coming their way, so that was going to be where the group was going to stop and sleep at for the night.

Leaf was just looking out the window, keeping his eyes out there, not looking away from the window as he was sitting there. Makoto kept her eyes on him as she was sitting next to him. She didn't say a word to Leaf after what she had asked him. She wanted to know Leaf a little bit more after he had saved her back in the cave. She sat there silently, before looking forward.

James drove, until he finally found the motel that he had found along this road. He pulls his car up to the parking lot, and he and Jenny got out of the car. Leaf and Makoto soon left the car as well, however, the robot girl stopped in her tracks, wanting to talk to Leaf. The elf looks behind himself, noticing Makoto was behind him.

"Leaf, you didn't say a simple thing after what I just asked you." Makoto said to him. "Do you mind explaining why you didn't say anything during the entire car ride?"

"Sorry about that..." Leaf turns himself around, facing the girl now. "...I am pretty much in a dark place right now when it comes to relationships. I never had a girlfriend, nor did I ever really thought about dating, like...at all. Call it me lying there, but...it's the truth." Makoto looks down. "I don't mean to sound like an asshole, Makoto...I just...felt like it was crazy that I needed to hear something that I was...just asked that, despite what I'm going through..."

"What are you going through?"

"I...I felt like I was in love, but..."

Leaf looks up at the night sky, not so sure how to tell Makoto about Petal being a person that he also had a crush on. He rubs his forehead, feeling stressed out that he had to be honest with somebody like her. He didn't bring up Petal in awhile now, and how he always had his heart and mind set on her when it came to being in love, but now he has to mention her. He thought he should've brought it up to James back at the ski-lodge when he and James talked before. He probably should have mentioned it back there, the more he thought about it.

Taking one more deep sigh, Leaf spoke. "It's just that...I kind of had a crush before...in my forest..." Leaf confesses to her. "I never said anything about this before because that is something that I don't want to get into. The Forest of the Elves is full of pricks, and...my crush is on their side when I try to say that...the humans are not bad people. That's there's hope that they are friendly people out here." The elf sat down on the hood of James's car again, before Makoto walked over to him. "I mean...Preston and Esma, and a couple more people seem to be pretty much terrible, as James says it...but...there's a part of me that has hope, while they are just...not wanting to take a chance on you guys. James and Jenny are nice. I don't see why they'd see the humans as terrible." Makoto walks over to Leaf, sitting next to him. "You know, I didn't even tell James about Petal, my crush."

"Why didn't you tell him?" Makoto asked him.

"Because I suck at expressing my emotions to other people. That's why."

"Well, you're expressing them to me, correct?" Leaf nods his head.

"Well, you're the first person to ask about my feelings, you know?" Makoto chuckles again, scooting closer to Leaf, placing a hand on his hand. "I feel better talking to you, Makoto. Thanks for this talk."

Makoto giggles once again, before Leaf kept his eyes on the sky above him. The robot girl waited a moment for two, before deciding to kiss Leaf on the cheek. The elf was caught off-guard by what Makoto just did. He blinked a couple times, before Makoto blushed.

James and Jenny finally got the two pairs two rooms here in the motel. James and Leaf had one room, Jenny and Makoto had another. Once that was settled on, the four of them went to the two different rooms, that were right next to each other.

Still rubbing his cheek, Leaf stood there in front of his motel room, just as James walked in there. He looks over to the room that Jenny and Makoto were walking into, as the robot girl was still standing by the door. Makoto looks at the elf, as Leaf was looking back at her. She waves at him, smiling softy, and blushing, before walking in the motel room. Leaf proceeded to walk into his own motel room.

* * *

Meanwhile...

Back in Preston's house...

Beebee was still enjoying her time by herself. She was in the kitchen of Preston's house, with the radio, playing the song '_Wannabe_' by the Spice Girls playing loudly through the living room. She was taking out a couple carrots from the fridge for her rabbit friends, as she was singing the song happily to herself.

Little did she know, Preston and Esma were both in the house, just as she got the carrots for the rabbits. As she closed the door, Preston and Esma stood by the front door, silently, with their arms crossed, staring at Beebee with blank expressions. They had a feeling that this would be happening while they were gone from the house.

"Beebee, didn't you and I talk about you bringing rabbits into my house?" Preston asked. Beebee stood there, looking left and right.

"There are no rabbits here." Beebee said. "...And if there were, they wouldn't break a single thing in this house."

Preston still stared at his girlfriend, as rabbits were literately coming out of the nearby furniture. From the couch, to the kitchen cabinets, to even the basement of this house. Rabbits were fleeing the house through the front door, as Preston and Esma were unfazed by the fact there was a horde of rabbits passing by them at the moment.

After all of the rabbits were gone, Preston shook his head, before sighing. Beebee awkwardly pressed the button on the radio, turning it off. Then Preston started to speak.

"Right...well...rabbits aside..." Preston mutters, before talking normally. "...It turns out we need you for something. It's vital we have you join along for what me and Esma are planning to do."

"What is it, Prezzy-Wezzy?" Beebee asked.

"It turns out, while me and Esma were out collecting the rare metal that we need for our new Nightmare Crown, it turns out...James, Jenny, and Leaf, with the help of another girl have came and attacked us out of it." Preston places his hands behind his back. "...Also, I need to inform you that Leaf, the boy with the hat that's all of the sudden friends with James...is an elf. We saw magic used right before our very eyes...and we had no idea until he raised his hand to defend his friends." Preston looks over to Esma. "Isn't that right?"

"It is." Esma said. "As much as it annoys me to have me even be around you...I believe it's only best we have you join along..."

"Why should I help you, you meanie?" Beebee asked.

"Because..." Esma closes her eyes for a couple moments, before opening them again. "Because Preston can't do this without you, alright? He...said constantly to me, that he was wanting you to join and help us out, because he thinks that your love might actually give him a little more confidence." Esma glared at the rabbit queen now. "...Is that enough for you to help us out?"

"Well..."

"Try to talk circles around me, I may as well give you an eyepatch...just like my last colleague..." Beebee stared at Esma, completely terrified by that being said.

"Okay, I'll join!" Beebee said, quickly.

"Grand." Preston said, smiling. "I'll assure you sweetheart, that you will not be regretting this one bit." Preston then steps out of his house, with Esma and Beebee soon following him.

"I hope I'm not going to regret bringing her." Esma mutters, bitterly, glaring at Beebee. "We are already facing problems between you and I, no need to add another one." Beebee blinked a couple times, before nodding her head, and following the two to the car.


	22. Chapter 22

Back at the motel...

With Jenny and Makoto...

"You kissed Leaf?" Jenny asked Makoto, after the robot explained what she did.

"He saved my life back there in the cave." Makoto said, looking at Jenny across from her on her bed. "You saved me by placing that battery, but if I fell down that trench...I'd probably be destroyed for good." Jenny nods her head.

"I see your point there. But really, you're in love with that Leaf boy? Really?" Makoto lays down onto her bed, before Jenny sat down onto her own. "All because he saved your life? No offense, but I don't think that Lois Lane and Superman was love at first sight...just saying." Makoto kept her eyes on the ceiling, imagining Leaf to herself.

"But he still saved my life, and after our talk at the gas station, I felt open about talking to him about what had happened to me before Esma took my battery out." Makoto looked horrified remembering that moment. "I...still feel angry, and bothered by remembering that I was not able to notice anything for a couple months, but I felt comfortable with talking to Leaf about what had happened, since...I feel safe whenever I am around him. He seems like I can tell him anything." Jenny cringed a little bit, before speaking once again.

"I'm not so sure he felt good about the whole kiss thing, you know? He really didn't seem too pleased by the fact that you kissed him out there when we left you guys alone."

"I've given him enough time for him to be alone..."

"He's with James right now."

"I meant I've left him alone to let that kiss sink in. Allow him to think about it." Makoto sat up, turning her head to face Jenny. "...He seemed like all he really needs is to think about what had happened. Then...if he's willing to, talk about it. He really did seem pretty freaked out, admittedly enough...but I felt like space is all he needs right now."

"...And you think now is a good time to talk to him?"

"Yes."

"I don't know, Makoto...I mean, you're a nice girl and all, but I think Leaf needs a little more time to get use to getting through something like that. Even more so, you DID kind of just kissed him without warning. He still probably feels rather shocked by what you've done." Makoto looks down.

"Maybe I should've kept that kiss to myself. I thought that he'd feel the same exact way."

The robot girl then stood up off of the bed, and walked over to the door out of the motel room. She walks opens the door, before looking behind herself, looking at Jenny, who was now just watching TV. Makoto shook her head, before deciding to finally heading out of the room to go talk to Leaf about what just happened.

* * *

Meanwhile...

With James and Leaf now...

The two boys decided to go to the roof since neither of them could really get any sort of sleep whatsoever. James was looking at the stars, with Leaf laying next to him, also looking at the stars as well. The elf just stared up at the sky, just enjoying the sight of these stars, before James finally spoke to the elf.

"Hey, dude...I'm sorry if I seemed pretty angry with you back there with Preston and Esma." James said. "I mean, we've been wanting to keep the magic secret from them, and...I can't really blame me or you for what happened. Esma just had to have a pistol, and Preston had to get prepared to kick my ass." The geeky goth smirked, before shaking his head. "Lets be honest here, I may look weak, but since I've been hanging out with Goth Boy for a majority of the time I was at my hometown, I would've kicked Preston's ass."

"Eh, I had to protect you guys somehow." Leaf said. "I mean...I couldn't really imagine what would've happened if I lost you guys now."

"I really didn't want you to use magic just so those two can't end up using that against you somehow." James sighed. "Truthfully...I guess I kind of owe you one, since you did save my life back there." Leaf chuckles.

"I guess Makoto owes me too." Leaf then sat up from the ground, looking at James. "But hey dude, I've felt confident about using my magic to protect myself and others. I don't think I can be in any sort of danger." Leaf then looks forward at the forest in front of them. "However, I guess it might be possible one of these days. I don't know."

"Maybe..." James then looks over to Leaf again. "Hey, Leaf...just curious...how was life back in the Forest of the Elves anyway? You've mentioned it a lot, and...I guess it's been pretty vague to me...what is it like to actually live there?"

Leaf looks down at his own feet. He closes his eyes for a couple moments, before looking over to the geeky goth he was sitting next to. He didn't want to be asked that kind of question, but since James is actually asking anyway, it's only fair to be honest with him now.

"Well...let's just say that...I'm probably the only elf out of all of those other ones to be kind of a lazy person..." Leaf said to the geeky goth. "...Well, not from the start, I mean. Before I ended up liking rock music, I was just like every other elf on my island."

"How did you end up liking rock n' roll music anyway?" James asked him. "I doubt those elves knew what that exactly was..."

"That's where a cruise ship came in. I believe it's around...the fifties or seventies, or...whatever...when I ended up discovering a jukebox drifting off to our island. I, at first, thought it was some sort of box that the mermaids were giving us, but it really was a working jukebox. Then I listened to what was on it...Elvis Presley, Bruce Springsteen, Ozzy Osbourne, Fleetwood Mac, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Franki Valli, many more that...I forgotten. I was like...damn this is awesome...and it made me think...I wondered what else the humans had over here that was so cool, and awesome." James looks forward, shrugging a shoulder.

"All I can really say, if you were really around in the fifties...and...truthfully, I don't exactly know how long you are, but...I can tell you, you missed a lot of things while you were at that island."

"I know. I wish I was here sooner." Leaf looks up at the sky again. "Aside from the fact that there was that Morcubus guy, walking around with Esma and...whoever you said was with him as well...but...hey, at least he's in jail now. Thank God." Leaf chuckles a bit, looking down at the roof below him. "But still, I'm surprised that there's other things I've never heard of over here. I mean, Nirvana, Green Day, Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nickelback, Fall Out Boy...dang, I have a lot to look forward too around here." Leaf then looks over to James, frowning a bit. "But...that would be a...thing that made me...hated by the other elves..."

"What? You? Who would hate you?"

"I kind of ended up a rebel to the rest of the elves. They think me liking the human stuff around here, and being interested in what they were like made them see me as nothing more but a complete joke." The elf then stood up onto his own feet, pacing in front of the goth. "...I mean, just because I like to know what more there could be to you humans...then they mock and bully me...even my own crush...Petal...did I mention her to you?"

"You...never said you had a crush, like at all."

"Well, I lied, because I didn't want you to know what kind of life I had back then before I came here...I was an idiot to those other elves..." Leaf then looks up at the sky, frowning. "...Even Petal wanted nothing to do with me...she sided with the other elves..." The elf looks down at the geeky goth, glaring at him. "To be fair, I should've seen that coming...considering that she is...like the best student in her classes. Every time I tried to talk to her, she ignores me..."

"That's kind of like how Goth Boy saw me at first..."

"You had a crush on Goth Boy?"

"What?! NO! I mean..." James stood up off of the roof, before continuing to speak. "...I meant that he was kind of...like, a tough kid, you know? His father is a Navy Seal after all." The geeky goth then held up his hands. "My points is...I feel like the person I wish would just give me the light of day, also ignored me. Even though...I really only wanted to join to help me and Jenny out, but I still wanted to be his friend regardless." Leaf frowns.

"Damn. Sorry to hear, dude."

Leaf wanted to actually ask James about something that he and Jenny talked about back at the ski-resort. He didn't really know if telling James was really a good idea or not. Without giving it a second thought however, Leaf decided to ask the geeky goth about it anyway.

"Hey...can I ask about...your father?" Leaf asked. James seemed rather shocked, hearing Leaf say that.

"Wh-Why would you want to know about my father?" James asked, clearly shocked.

"Jenny kind of mentioned something about that, but...she didn't say anything because...she only is allowed to talk about your father, just as long as you're near her, and comfortable about it." James blinked a couple times, before shaking his head.

"No, Jenny's allowed to talk to others about him...it's just that...I rather not be near when I hear about him, because..." James sighed. "...I lost him..." Leaf frowned hearing that being said.

"H-How? Divorce?"

James looks at the forest, keeping his eyes on it, not even answering that question. All he can really do is stand there and think about what had happened before he even met Leaf.

* * *

_James opens his eyes once again..._

_He noticed that he was a little younger now, about around the age of eleven. James was a little different, his hair was still black that's a little more combed, while his outfit was not how it is when he's older. His outfit was a red and black plaid flannel-jacket with a t-shirt with en electric guitar on the front, baggy dark blue jeans, and purple sneakers. _

_James was walking home from school, as it was just nearby. He was told by his mother to come home immediately after school, as she was wanting to tell him something that's urgent for him to hear. He walked until he finally got to his own house...he was horrified by what he was seeing..._

_He took notice that there were a police car and an ambulance parked outside his house. His mother was in tears, as she was talking to one of the police officers. The young geek didn't see his dad anywhere in the bunch of people who were there. He immediately ran for the house, wanting to know what happened._

_"Mom! What happened?!" James shouts, running up to his mother. "Where's dad?!" _

_"James...dear...you're here." James's mother said. "...I'm so sorry to tell you dear, but...your father...he..." James's mother was close to tears, before holding onto her son's shoulders. _

_"W-Where is he?" His mother wipes a tear from her eye, before trying to speak to her son, through tears. _

_"I'm so sorry...he was just walking back home from work, and..." James's mother held onto her mouth, before she looks over to a stop sign that was broken. "I'm so sorry, James...but...he's gone..." _

_James looks over to the stop sign that his mother saw. It wasn't hard for James to put two and two together to know what had happened to his own father. The young gamer walked a couple steps over to the direction of the stop sign that was destroyed. He was visibly shocked and saddened by what had happened. _

_"No..." James said, softly, before tears started to come out of his eyes. "I...I can't believe this happened..." James backs up, before he placed his hands on his face, more tears coming out of his eyes as he was beginning to tear up heavily now._

_"Son, we're sorry about what had happened to your father. But we're going to try to do everything we can to save him." A policeman said behind the young boy._

_"Are...are you guys sure you can save him?" The policeman sighed, before placing a hand on his shoulder._

_"We'll try. I promise." _

_The police hands James a badge that he was carrying in his pocket. It was pretty much a toy police badge, in hopes of making a child feel better. Sadly, for James, this was nice, but it wasn't making him feel better. He looks behind himself, just as the police car, and the ambulance took off._

* * *

"...My dad didn't make it..." James said. "They tried everything they could, but...it was too late..." Leaf was standing there, looking at his own friend with shock in his eyes.

"Dude...I'm so sorry..." Leaf said. "...I really wish I could bring him back, but it's impossible for me to do that." Leaf then walks up to the geeky goth, before patting him on his shoulders.

"Thanks dude...I miss him to this day..."

James reaches into his jacket pocket, pulling out the same exact police badge that he got from that moment in his life. He let's out a tear from his eye as it landed on the toy badge itself. James places the badge back into his pocket, as Leaf stared at the geeky goth with sadness in his eyes.

"I've kept the badge ever since the accident happened." James told him. "I know it's only a toy that...only kids would play with, but I only kept this badge because it reminds me of my own dad...or...the only reminder of my dad left." James kept his eyes on the roof again. "...I know it sounds dumb...but it really is the only thing that reminds me of my dad."

"It's not stupid." Leaf said. "If anything...anytime I hear Billy Joel's love songs...I'm reminded of Petel every time I hear them." James wipes a tear from his eye, before looking at the elf again.

"Hey dude..." Leaf looks at James again. "...I'm sorry about what had happened in the Forest of the Elves. You might've been a little...weird for me and Jenny to get use to, but...from the entire time you were here...you would've...pretty much proved those other elves wrong so far, in my opinion." Leaf smiled, looking at his new friend hearing that.

"Thanks..." Leaf looks down to the ground. "I just hope...Petal forgives me for...all that has happened." James blinked a couple times, before patting the elf on his back.

"I'm sure she will. She couldn't be angry at you for this forever." Leaf crosses his arms, sighing to himself.

"I hope not forever..." James looks up at the sky, seeing that it was nighttime still.

"It's getting pretty late, dude. We should probably get some sleep now." Leaf shrugs his shoulders.

"Nah, I think I should just go for a walk right now..." Leaf rubs the back of his head, before snapping his fingers, getting the two to be in front of their own motel room. "...You can get ready for bed all you want, but...I think I need to walk around and clear my head right now, if that's okay with you." James shrugs his shoulders, not seeing anything too wrong with this.

"I guess that's fine. Just don't be out too late, we have to drive first thing in the morning when we wake up. Who even knows where Preston and Esma are right now around here."

"Don't worry, if I see those guys, I'm using my magic to send them back to that town we were in before."

Leaf walks off to walk around the motel's parking lot, before James walked back into his own motel room. The geeky goth walked over to his own bed, laying down on it, and getting right to bed.

It was right about this time, Makoto stepped out of the motel room she and Jenny were in, and took notice of Leaf walking around the parking lot of the motel. Leaf was walking around the area by himself by the looks of it. Seeing that this seems like a good enough time than ever to try to talk to Leaf, Makoto decided to go up to the elf so that she can talk about the kiss she and him had before.

Leaf just stood by the street of the motel area, looking both ways, before the sound of walking was heard behind him. He turns around, thinking that it was either James or Jenny, but he turns around, surprised to see that Makoto was actually behind him instead. The elf raises an eyebrow, seeing the robot standing behind him.

"Can I help you, Makoto?" Leaf asked her. Makoto smiled a little bit, before finally asking the elf a question.

"Do you mind me being out here with you?" Makoto asked him. Leaf sighed, before looking to the street. It seemed pretty dangerous to be alone anyway, considering Preston and Esma now want him, James, Jenny, and the robot now that they took the metal from them.

"Alright. I don't see why not." Leaf looks behind himself. "But just don't kiss me again, alright?" Makoto stood there, smiling at the elf. She nodded her head, before the two of them began walking around the motel building area.


	23. Chapter 23

Still walking around the motel parking lot, Leaf and Makoto walked silently next to each other, trying to get themselves tired. Leaf really had no idea what to even say to Makoto, considering that he was still thinking about the kiss she gave him. He still loved Petal with all of his heart, but he didn't want to hurt Makoto's feelings by saying he still loves Petal. He had no idea love was this difficult to handle.

Leaf kept his hands in his jacket pockets, as he was looking around the sky above him, with Makoto walking next to him. The two were still silent, as neither of them really knew what to even say to the other. Once they were tired of walking, Leaf and Makoto stopped at one part of the edge of the back of the motel.

The elf looks up at the sky, taking a deep sigh, remembering his crush. Makoto remained looking up at the sky as well, looking at the stars, just like Leaf. Sadly, she doesn't really know what the elf is thinking, considering that she is rather enjoying of the night sky above them.

"It's a rather beautiful night, isn't it?" Makoto asked him, still staring at the stars. Leaf nods his head.

"Eh, I seen more beautiful back in the Forest of the Elves." Leaf said, looking at the sky still. "Honestly, Makoto, I feel like it would be so much nicer..." Leaf held up one of his hands, as it began to glow purple. "...If we added a little bit of magic to this."

The magic came out of Leaf's hands, as they aimed for the trees. Once the purple magical lights hit the trees, a couple flowers began to grow on them. They grew pretty quickly, and then began to fly away, turning into a lot of shapes in the sky, including the shape of a heart. Makoto smiled, as a blush came onto her face. Leaf took notice of this once he noticed the blush on Makoto's face.

"Um...that was really meant to be for Petal..." Leaf said, looking at the robot girl. "I hope those flowers fly over to the island, and Petal takes notice of it..." Makoto looks over to Leaf, walking closer to him.

"Well...I think it's a sweet that this was a thing you were going to give to Petal." Makoto said, smiling at the elf still. "If she saw that, she really would've ended up loving it." She giggles to herself. "I know I liked it."

"Yeah, well, that's because you...did end up kissing me out of complete nowhere." Leaf looks away from the robot girl. "I mean, love was something I though was going to be easy, until my own crush, thought I was nothing more but a complete loser." Makoto frowned hearing that.

"Guess you're still angry about that. Hmm?"

"Angry, no, I'm..." Leaf's face was visibly growing angry, before he stops, then looks down to the ground. He sat down on a nearby box. "...Frustrated about it, really...I thought she'd be the one for me, but...I guess some things were not meant to be. Hell, she didn't even notice I was even missing from the Forest in the Elves. Guess to her, I'm nothing more but invisible."

Leaf snaps his fingers, turning himself invisible. Makoto looks around, wondering where Leaf went, before he snaps his fingers again, appearing right next to the robot girl. He sighed, before looking over to Makoto, talking, which gets the girl startled by him.

"Yeah. It really sucks for me to have to go through something like that." Leaf said. "To think I would never go through heartbreak without even dating somebody." Makoto looks at Leaf with sympathy. The robot steps forward at the elf, before placing her hands behind her back.

"I...wish something like that would be different." Makoto says, looking down to the ground, rubbing a shin on the ground. "But...Petal would probably notice you're gone."

"I doubt she would care...considering she was scared that her friends saw me with her." The robot frowned, placing her hands on her hips, and now glaring at the elf.

"There is no need to be hostile with me. I am only trying to comfort you." Leaf frowned, before crossing his arms.

"Right...sorry about that...I've just never been so open when it comes to talking about Petal and how she treated me back there in the Forest of the Elves before I left."

Leaf sighed, before he sat down onto the box again, so that he can levitate himself into the air while sitting down. Now floating around, Leaf continued to talk.

"Aside from me, was there anyone else that you were in love with, Makoto?" Leaf asked.

"No. Only you." Makoto said, before poking Leaf on his nose as he was floating around her.

"Right...I should've expected that answer instead of..."

Out of nowhere, Makoto was taken down by something unknown. It was too fast for Leaf to notice what it was. But just as he took notice, he was immediately taken down too, by being hit by something, sending him falling to the ground below him.

"Well, well, well, look who we have here." That was Preston's voice. Leaf looks up, seeing the prep standing there, glaring down at him. "To think we lost you and your mates in the town."

Leaf gasps, before looking at the robot girl. Esma and Beebee were trying to keep her down. Leaf tried to hold up a hand, ready to save Makoto, only for the elf to have his wrist stepped on by Preston. The prep glares down at the elf, shaking his head at what the elf was attempting to do.

"What do you think you're doing? You're not using magic to save your sorry ass out of this one." Preston said, before pulling out a baseball bat from nearby.

Leaf has no other choice but to scream for help. He attempts to scream out for either James or Jenny to come and save him and Makoto, only for Preston to knock the elf out before he could do anything. Leaf passed out after that hit, as Preston stared at Esma and Beebee who have finally got Makoto to be knocked out too.

"Let's bring these two back to the warehouse." Preston said to the two girls he was with. "If James and Jenny want to have their two friends again, they will have to go back for them."

"What about the crown?" Esma asked. Preston gave the MorcuCorp girl a smirk.

"Don't worry, we got the metal back from Makoto." Preston looks down at Leaf, shaking his head. "We didn't need this elf, as we really only needed the robot...but considering that he seems like he's tougher than James, I believe we're doing a smart thing by bringing him with us."

"Agreed."

"But is he really magic? I've never seen a single bit of it used so far." Beebee said, looking confused.

"If he even attempts to escape. You might end up seeing it happen in front of you." Preston than looks over to Esma. "Maybe, anyway. For now, it's only vital that we bring these two to the warehouse, now."

"Already on it." Esma said.

* * *

The next day...

James woke up. He looks over to Leafs bed, noticing that he probably woke up before he did. Kind of something that he has gotten use to anyway, since the elf tends to wake up before he does, nowadays.

Upon leaving his motel room, however, he was surprised to notice that Jenny was outside, trying to find Makoto. It doesn't seem like either one of them were even outside the motel building, let alone even being around this part of the country at all. Jenny was calling out to the robot girl, hoping that she is somewhere, as James was silently looking around the elf and robot girl, unsure where they were at too.

"Leaf?! Makoto?! Where are you guys?!" James shouts, looking around the parking lot.

Suddenly, James got a call on his phone. He looks down at his jacket pocket, before pulling it out to see who was calling him. Much to his surprise, Preston was actually calling him right now. The boy hated the fact that of all people in the world, Preston was the one who was calling him right now. But knowing Leaf and Makoto are missing, he can only imagine that Preston had some sort of involvement in this.

Jenny ran over to her boyfriend, wondering who James was calling right now, only to see that it was Preston. She was even disgusted at the fact that the prep was calling them right now too. James answers the call as his girlfriend approaches him.

"Preston! What do you want?!" James asked. "What have you done with Leaf and Makoto?!"

"You assumed that I have some sort of involvement in your chaps being missing?" Preston asked. "Well, let me just say that your assumption is correct, as always, Louiston."

"What have you done with them, Preston!?" Preston chuckles on the other line. "TELL ME WHERE THEY ARE!"

"Remember the warehouse that you were at the last time? Where you found Makoto in the basement?" Preston chuckles one more time, before finally speaking the rest of his sentence. "Let me just say that your friends are in this warehouse along with me, Esma, and my girlfriend Beebee. You can try to save them all you want, but just know one thing...me and Esma have already made the second Nightmare Crown. We just finished it last night, thanks to us getting the rare metal for it back from your robot friend. You can try to come up here to save them again, but just know one little thing, once you come here, we'll be ready to open the Nightmare Realm, and finish what Morcubus was about to do back in 2010."

"You wouldn't dare open the Nightmare Realm, even if you had the guts to do so!" Jenny shouts, glaring at the phone.

"Give me the phone, Preston!" Esma's voice said from the other line. "Hello Jenny, I heard your voice, and I thought I'd say hello to you."

"You bitch! Don't you know what you'll do if you open that Nightmare Realm?! You'll destroy the world, not rule it!"

"What you're telling me is bullshit. We're done here."

"Don't you..." Esma hung up the phone before Jenny could speak anymore to her. "...Son of a bitch! I guess we're going to have to go back for those two before they open that portal."

"We're screwed. Those guys got a Nightmare Crown, while we have...our own fists." James said, before somebody from behind them spoke. "How are we going to save Leaf and Makoto without dying?"

"Hey, I heard you two mention something about...Leaf?" Pine-Cone's voice said behind the two. "Have you seen a person who has a green hat, gray hair, with..."

"...A green open jacket, no shirt, white pants? We're friends with him." James said, accidentally interrupting Pine-Cone before he could finish his sentence. "...Wait, are you guys friends with him or something? You look like elves." James then looks over to Petal. "I...also believe Leaf said you were Petal, right? He said a lot about you." Petal blinked a couple times, before raising an eyebrow.

"I...guess Leaf talked a lot about me being someone who treated him terribly...hmm?" Petal asked, feeling saddened by that. "I really didn't treat him too well back before he left the Forest of the Elves." Petal then looks over to Jenny. "Come to think of it, how did you two met Leaf? How do even know he's an elf?"

"He...kind of showed us." Jenny said.

"Of course he did..." Petal sighed, before looking at the couple again. "...But we're trying to find him. Do you know where he is right now?" James held up a finger.

"Uh...about that..." James started off saying. "...It turns out...he was kind of taken away from us because of a bastard that me and Jenny know, and he is also helping out this bitch who was about of MorcuCorp...now they made a Nightmare Crown, and are ready to take over the world with it. Also, Leaf might be killed if he is even near that Nightmare Realm."

"Nightmare Realm?" Pine-Cone asked. "The king said something about feeling something that feels...nightmarish back at the Forest of the Elves itself...maybe the Nightmare Realm is was that feeling." Petal rubs her chin, before nodding her head.

"With the help of these two, I believe that we can put a stop to that 'Nightmare Crown' object that these two brought up to us..." Petal said, before looking at James and Jenny again. "Uh...now where are my manners? May we have your names, since you are colleagues with Leaf now."

"Of course, I'm James." The geeky goth said. "Jenny is my girlfriend. We came up here for a vacation, only for things to turn into...well, something unexpected, really. Then Leaf came along into our lives when we were visiting my aunt, Professor Nova. It was a fun time, until Preston came into our lives during this whole thing, because of course he decided to come along during all of this."

"As much as I want to know what else happened during all of this, I think we can to get to Leaf before he most likely dies from that Nightmare Realm."

"Right. Come on, let's get to the warehouse before it's too late!" James pulls out his car-keys, only for Petal and Pine-Cone to get hesitate to go and use it.

"You mean we're riding in that?" Pine-Cone asked him.

"Well, duh. We have to, since it's the fastest way to get to the town." James smiled, before opening one of the doors to his car. "It's totally safe, just come on, you two." Petal and Pine-Cone looked at each other, before getting into the car along with James and Jenny. After they were all in the car, they started to head off to the town they were just in.


	24. Chapter 24

Back with Leaf...

He woke up, trying to look around at where he was at. He had no idea where he was at the moment, as he can only make out Makoto, who was also passed out left of him, a desk, a chair, a couple windows, and a rug on the ground. He tried to figure out where he was even at, before he began to hear other voices outside of this room.

"Are those two idiots here yet?" Esma asked outside of the room. "The workers have no clue where they are!" Preston's voice than was heard by the elf, as he was trying to wake up from being unconscious.

"I already sent them that call seconds ago. Don't worry about them coming in here or not." Preston said. "We already got the gem inside the Nightmare Crown, and it doesn't even matter if James and his girlfriend comes here or not, I'm not waiting for them, knowing full well we have that crown ready for you to take over the world." Steps were heard, passing by the open door. "Not to mention, don't worry about them. They won't be waking up in time to stop us from opening the Nightmare Realm."

"But what about me and my rabbit friends? They are not going to like the idea of scary beasts roaming around the town, ready to scare anyone in sight, including us." Beebee said, frightened in the other room.

"Beebee, dear, you don't need to worry about the monsters getting you or your rabbit friends. As far as my knowledge can go about this situation, the person who wears the crown won't get attacked by said monsters."

"That was hearsay on Esma's part. We don't know if we're going to die or not."

"Just trust me on this, dear. I doubt anything bad is about to happen to us when it comes to the beasts that are inside of that dimension." Preston then walks into the room, looking at the two who were in here. "Don't worry about these two as well, Beebee...Leaf and Makoto here are going to be those giant nightmare beasts next meal, in case we go in there."

"Why would we WANT to go into the Nightmare Realm?" Preston looks over to Beebee, before reaching out to her.

"Me and Esma will explain it a little better as we the Nightmare Realm to open. But as far as I'm concern, these two here are going to be given to the Nightmare Realm in case those monsters are hostile towards us."

It wasn't until Preston was out of the room that Leaf finally gotten himself fully awake. He looks over to Makoto, noticing that she had her battery taken out of her again. Leaf took notice of the battery being on the desk. Leaf was about to use his own magic to try to get the battery over to himself and Makoto, only to realize that his hands were tied up.

'_Really? Do these guys forget that I have magic?_' Leaf asked in his thoughts.

Leaf's hands glowed purple, causing the ropes on his hands to disappear. The elf then stood up to grab the battery off of the desk to place inside Makoto once again. The elf places the battery back into the robot. Makoto opens her eyes, before looking over to the elf.

"Leaf...where are we?" Makoto asked, looking over to the elf, as he was looking out a nearby wall window, seeing that it was the warehouse again.

"The warehouse." Leaf said. "Preston and Esma must've kidnapped us when we were talking to each other back there in the motel." Leaf shook his head, before looking over to Makoto once again. "Damn it, the instant we walk out of here, we'll be caught by them again."

"Can't we just teleport to James and Jenny?"

Leaf looks out the door, seeing Preston and Esma talking to each other, next to the Nightmare Crown. "With the Nightmare Crown in the ready, I don't think that's an option right now. But we need to stop those two from opening the portal to the Nightmare Realm before it's too late." Leaf looks over to the robot girl, allowing his hand to glow purple. "Just leave Preston and Esma to me."

Leaf stared at Preston and Esma talking to each other, before coming out of the office room to make his way over to the two. He kept the magic in his hands, heading over to those two, attempting to destroy the crown before they do anything else. Sadly, once Leaf finally gotten out into the open, Preston taps the gem on the Nightmare Corwn when Leaf was about to come into his view.

The gem glowed, as Leaf stops himself, feeling pain as he felt the evil coming out of the red gem. He collapses to the ground, groaning at the gem's magic, causing Preston and Esma to notice the elf attempting to come over to them. Preston gave the elf a smirk as he walked over to Leaf.

"Oh, well you're finally awake...are you elf?" Preston asked him, shaking his head. "Thinking you could stop me and Esma now? It seems like the gem of that crown is what makes you weak..." Leaf lifts his head up, glaring at Preston as best as he can.

"Y-You think you can...try to take over the world with that crown...but you can't..." Leaf said, trying to stand up.

"Oh...we already won, elf. Haven't you noticed? Your friends are not here to save your sorry ass from being placed inside the Nightmare Realm." Esma said, holding the crown in front of Leaf. "Considering that this gem is making you weak, you seem to have given us what your weakness is."

"I didn't even know my own weakness, you son of a..." Esma kept the gem glowing, making Leaf be quiet. "...Wait until James and Jenny stop you guys..."

* * *

Outside...

Just like Leaf said, James and Jenny were driving their way to the warehouse. They drove up to the gate, seeing that it was locked. All four of them got out of the car, and ran up to the locked gates.

James tries to kick the gates open, only for nothing to happen. Petal then steps in front of James, holding up a hand, causing magic to glow out of her hands. The padlock unlocked because of her magic, and then the gates opened, just like that. Petal lowers her hands, as the four of them walked into the warehouse.

Just as they were entering the warehouse, Pine-Cone started to feel pretty funny about what was in there. "Uh...guys...I'm sensing the same exact evil energy that the king felt back in our kingdom..." Pine-Cone said, weakly. "I...I think we came...just as the portal is opening...because I can..." Petal seems to not be affected by the Nightmare Crown at the moment, unlike Leaf or Pine-Cone.

"Wait...then how am I not getting affected by the..." Petal asked, before the sound of Preston's voice came from inside the warehouse.

"Ah, James, Jenny...you've arrived." Preston said, looking down from the platform of the warehouse's second floor. "...And right on time as well..." James and Jenny walked forward, glaring upward at the second floor, as Esma was holding the crown in his hands, with Leaf on the ground next to him. "I thought you'd never show up, and we found Leaf's weakness too..."

"J-James..." Leaf said, trying to stand up.

"Let him go, Preston!" James shouts, stepping forward.

"Oh please, realize that two of your friends are weak against us at the moment!" Esma shouts, holding the Nightmare Crown again Leaf. She then noticed the other two elves that were with them. "Oh, don't bring two more elves into this little situation! It's pretty clear that this crown is the thing that makes your friends weak!"

It wasn't until that was said that the female elf stepped forward, as Esma taps the Nightmare Crown, making it glow extremely bright. Petal was still not weak from the bright light coming out of the gem, only Pine-Cone and Leaf have been weakened by it. Petal, nor everyone else in the warehouse, knew why she was not getting weakened by the Nightmare Crown.

That wasn't until Petal pulls out the gem that she had in her bag. It was glowing it in her hands, causing Esma and Preston to be shocked by what was happening. The MorcuCorp girl stared at the female elf.

"This...this is impossible..." Esma said, speechlessly. The girl then glared down at them, still keeping the crown in her hands. "But...it doesn't fucking matter! We still won! We have the new Nightmare Crown, and if you haven't noticed, me, Preston, and Beebee outnumber you in this whole battle!"

"Really?!" James shouts, before looking over to Beebee. "Then you might as well say why Beebee shouldn't be on your side on this one anymore!"

"W-What?" Beebee asked.

"Listen, I don't know what happened back then in the past between Esma and Preston, but...before they have decided to go and make this crown, we have heard your boyfriend and Esma talking about something that you really need to hear!"

Esma and Preston were shocked by what they were hearing. James was really doing this. He was really about to explain to Beebee about what had happened in the past. There was really nothing else that James was going to tell her. This made Preston nothing more but angry. Esma stops letting the Nightmare Crown glow, before Preston decided to yell at the geeky goth.

"James! Don't you dare say anything to my girlfriend about what had happened!" Preston yells at him. Beebee looks over to Preston, rather shocked.

"Preston?" Beebee said, rather confused by what is going on. "What is he talking about?"

"N-Nothing...nothing...James is saying nothing but bullshit."

"Oh really, so the conversation that you and Esma had when we arrived here earlier wasn't about something about..." James points at the MorcuCorp girl, who froze when the geeky goth just says his next words. "...You cheating on Beebee with her?!" Beebee's mouth opened in horror at that being said.

"Prezzy-Weezy...w-what is James talking about?" Beebee asked him.

"He's making stuff up! I didn't cheat on you with Esma, if I did, I would've been...I mean...I...I..." Preston looks in horror at the ground, before shaking his head.

"Confess already, Preston! Tell your girlfriend what happened!" James said, pointing at the prep.

Preston stood there, in horror at the fact that James just said that he was cheating on Beebee. He had no idea what to even say now that he was caught by those four, including his own girlfriend. The only thing that Preston could recall is being a restaurant, a year ago, as the song '_Waiting for a Girl Like You_' by Foreigner was the only song that he was remembering in his head.

* * *

_As the music played throughout the entire building, Preston walked into the building, as he was looking around the place. He was wearing a dark brown trench-coat, with his regular outfit underneath. He was wanting to meet up with Esma, as he was told by her to come there._

_Preston told the waiter at the front desk that he needed to find Esma around this building. After being told where Esma was, he __places his hands in his pockets, and then headed towards the table that the MorcuCorp girl was sitting at. The girl was sitting at one of the tables with a menu blocking her face, so that an SPA Agency wasn't going to notice and arrest her, along with Morcubus and Brandi. Preston stood by the table, looking at the MorcuCorp girl._

_"Esma, you can lower that menu now." Preston said. _

_Esma lowers the menu, looking up at the prep. Unlike her usual outfit, since this was last year, Esma's hair was still messy and dark brown. But her outfit was a black strapless tank-top with dark blue jeans, and a black jacket that was placed on the chair behind her. She looks up at Preston, before giving him a smirk._

_"I was wondering where you were." Esma said, looking at the prep. She places the menu aside, before leaning on the table. Preston sat down with Esma, smiling at her. _

_"I had to come since you did text me." Preston said, smiling at her. "Beebee will be back home, trying to take care of her rabbits. She always tells me that she's the princess or...queen of them, as you can tell." Esma nods her head, as she gave the prep a smirk still._

_"Still gets me curious how a guy like you even goes out with a girl like her." _

_"The same is said in my head, Esma...I think the same thing..." Preston chuckles a bit. "...At least I get to be spending my precious time with a girl who is a lot more smarter than her anyway. Also, prettier." Esma chuckles as well. _

_"Oh, you are too kind to me, Preston. You really are." _

_"Yes, yes...well...I always know how to be a gentleman to other people. My parents raised me correctly." Preston then leans on the table, pulling out some flowers from his pocket, handing them over to Esma. "I forgot to give you these before I came in here." Esma looks at the flowers for a couple seconds, before looking at Preston with a frown._

_"Thank you for these. However, I do prefer it if you have given me a new pair of shoes or something like that." Esma places the flowers into her purse, before looking at the prep once again. "Anyhow, let's just enjoy this moment to ourselves until you have to go off to help the SPA Agency out after they finally did something about you attempting to get that yeti arrested. Oh...this is going to be so difficult to be living here after you leave tomorrow night." Preston nods, before holding Esma by her hands._

_"Of course, Esma. It's going to be difficult, but...after I end up giving the SPA Agency some help...and collect that red gem from their Nightmare Crown...we will continue our little relationship. Just as long as Beebee doesn't end up noticing our relationship." Esma gave him another smirk._

_"You think a kiss will be enough of a promise that we keep this to ourselves?" _

_"Yes, of course." _

* * *

Suddenly...

Preston was brought out of his imagination of remembering his relationship with Esma starting when Beebee punches him in the arm. The prep fell to the ground, feeling pain that was given to him from his girlfriend, or in this case, his now exgirlfriend. Beebee points at him with tears in her eyes.

"You cheating meanie-face!" Beebee shouts, before running off crying.

The girl in pink ran out of the warehouse, running off to who knows where. Preston's eyes widened as he stood up from the ground, watching Beebee leave the warehouse in tears. He tried to reach out for her, but she was not turning around to come back to him.

He looks down at James, Jenny, Petal, and Pine-Cone, before he grew extremely angry. More angrier than any time before. Preston points at James, extremely furious with him for what he just caused.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH! YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO GO AND SAY THAT!" Preston screams, pretty much pass the point of being furious at the geeky goth. "You just had to go and tell her what I've done a year ago...you honestly had to...if that's the kind of game you want to go do this to me, you left me no other choice now!"

Esma hands Preston the crown, as she went off to the office room to get Makoto. Once the robot girl was out, and was pushed right next to the weakened Leaf, Esma took the crown, placing it onto her own head. The MorcuCorp girl places the crown onto her own head, before Esma glared down at the four on the floor below them.

Esma held onto the sides of the crown, before closing her eyes, allowing a purple portal behind her to open. James, Jenny, Petal, and Pine-Cone stood there in shock, but not before Leaf and Pine-Cone became even more weakened by the portal opening up. Petal still stood there, unharmed by the affects of the Nightmare Crown.

With the portal now open, Esma's eyes opened, as she sends a blast coming out of the crown's gem, something that the first Nightmare Crown didn't do before. This blast was able to break a hole in the roof above, causing a giant force-field to be building itself around the entire town that the group was in. The entire town turns completely dark outside, with the exception of the inside the buildings. James, Jenny, and Petal looks outside of the warehouse in pure terror.

"This can not be good..." James mutters, as he stared outside of the warehouse, looking at the darkness of the town.


	25. Chapter 25

It was the start of a disaster in this giant force-field of darkness, engulfing the entire town. Nobody was in the streets, as most ran to hide inside, worried with what terrors would be out here when all of this was happening. It felt like it really is the end of the world just by the sight of this alone.

James, Jenny, Petal, and Pine-Cone could really do nothing but watch in terror as the portal that leads to the Nightmare Realm was now open. Esma and Preston had faces that made they appear to be ecstatic by all of this. Preston walks over to Leaf and Makoto, picking them both up, before glaring downward at the four who were still on the first floor.

"Well, I guess you have no other choice but to surrender! How does it feel knowing that all of this is your fault, James?!" Preston shouts, glaring at James. "If you didn't tell Beebee what happened, you didn't have to make things go this far!" James points at Preston, glaring directly at him.

"It would've been this far, telling her or not!" James shouts at him. "I just hope you're happy with cheating on her with a girl from MorcuCorp of all places!" Preston points at James again, glaring at him.

"Shut up! I heard enough out of you, James! It's about time we try to get one of those creatures in there some food!"

"What the hell does that mean!" Preston held up Leaf by his arm, giving James an evil smile. "You bastard! LET HIM GO!"

"Oh, what a bad choice of words, chap...I'm afraid you should've told me to do that when I wasn't near the..."

Suddenly, Makoto came out of nowhere, punching Preston off of Leaf. The elf still felt weakened by the crown, but Makoto still tried to keep him standing up. The two attempted to head towards the stairs down to the rest of the group, only for Esma to blast a light out of the Nightmare Crown's gem into Makoto's foot, causing her to trip down to the ground.

The two were on the ground again. Esma walked up to Makoto, picking her up, glaring directly into her eyes, before walking over to the portal. The MorcuCorp girl gave the robot a sinister grin, standing next to the Nightmare Realm's entrance.

James and Jenny ran straight for the stairs that were leading upstairs. Preston presses a button that was right next to the metal stairs, sending them up. James and Jenny stopped in front of the platform that was leading up, now unable to get up to save Makoto. Esma looks behind herself, then looked back at Makoto again.

"Well...this feels like Evelyn Gray throwing herself into the dimension all over again..." Esma said. "...The only difference is, I get to throw you in there myself..." Makoto narrows her eyes, glaring at the MorcuCorp girl.

"You'll...you'll never...win..." Makoto said, bitterly.

"I already have..."

Esma throws the robot girl into the vortex, causing James, Jenny, and Leaf to stare at what just happened in horror. "**MAKOTO!**" James screams, running closer to the side of the platform Esma was standing at.

"**NO!**" Jenny also screams, immediately after.

Leaf attempted to stand up from the ground, keeping his eyes on Esma after she did what she did. Makoto was now in the Nightmare Realm, because of her...he shook his head, staring at her, before he grew angry. He tried his best to get closer to Esma, ready to use magic on the MorcuCorp girl. But then Preston grabbed Leaf, picking him up.

"You...you fucking monster..." Leaf said, glaring at Preston.

"Like you're threatening me one bit. It's clear that that Nightmare Crown makes you weak...let's see if throwing you into that vortex kills you." Preston said, about to throw Leaf into the Nightmare Realm. "Get ready to bring those monsters over to our portal." Preston faces the Nightmare Realm, ready to throw Leaf into the vortex.

It seems like the boy she was crushing on was going be thrown in there, and probably be weakened even worse than he already was. Leaf was most likely going to die if he was to go into there. Even Leaf felt like this was going to be his demise now. He never knew that this would be how he sees his own death.

But that was when Petal notices the king's gem that was in her bag. She pulls it out, just as it was glowing extremely brightly in her hands. It was starting to make sense to her now, the fact that she wasn't getting weak by the power of the Nightmare Crown. This gem is what was keeping her safe. It was probably her only chance to save Leaf from getting into the Nightmare Realm.

Petal held the gem in both of her hands, before closing her eyes. The entire warehouse started to shake rapidly, causing Esma and Preston to stop what they were doing, before looking up at the roof. The many warehouse workers who were standing around the building, ran out of the building, screaming and heading home.

Rather than being scared by the sudden shaking, James and Jenny looked up in confusion. They had no idea what was even going on. But whatever it was, it didn't sit well with Esma or Preston. The two looked over to the upstairs area, before they heard the sound of the large windows breaking. Many tree roots were breaking through the windows.

"WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?!" James shouts, looking around. "WHAT DOES THAT GEM EVEN DO?!"

"IT'S A GEM THAT HELPS ANYTHING THAT'S NATURE!" Petal shouts, keeping her eyes closed.

"Anything nature?" Jenny asked, softly to herself. She looks outside, before running off.

"Jenny!?" James shouts, as his girlfriend was running outside, unsure what's even outside.

* * *

Outside the warehouse...

Jenny saw nothing more but a black sky above them, mainly because of the force-field that was keeping engulfing the whole town. There was also a dark blue scary fog filling a majority of the ground area of the town. Jenny breathed heavily, looking around for what Petal's gem was even doing, before looking behind herself, seeing what was really going on.

Trees were beginning to grow out of the ground, surrounding the warehouse. The walls surrounding the warehouse were breaking apart, as boxes and trucks were being moved or tipped over by the branches and roots breaking out of the ground and windows of the building in front of her.

"Holy crap..." Jenny said, softly in awe at what she was seeing. She then looks down at the garage door, ready to run back into the warehouse. "JAMES, THE WHOLE BUILDING IS GOING TO BE..."

Jenny looks up, being interrupted by a moving truck that was about to land right in front of the warehouse's garage door. She stops right in front of the truck as the trailer of it, laid on its side, blocking her way into the warehouse. James was heard running to the truck on the other side.

"Jenny! Are you alive?!" James shouts from inside the building.

"I'm okay, sweetie!" Jenny shouts. "I'm now trapped outside with this god damn truck blocking my only way in! I don't know how safe it is outside, but considering how much fog I'm seeing around here, I'm not waiting around to find out!" Jenny looks up at the trees that were growing around the warehouse. "Hang on, just try to save Leaf! I think I found my way in! All I need to do is find the back door we used before!"

"Alright! Be careful, Jenny!"

"I will!"

* * *

Back inside the warehouse...

James backs up from the truck that was blocking the garage door, before looking behind himself. Preston and Esma were still looking around the entire warehouse, seeing parts of it beginning to break because of the trees growing around it. The only thing that was good on Leaf's part was that Preston no longer was holding him.

As the two were distracted, Leaf made his way over to the stairs, crawling towards the button next to it. He uses his magic to press the button, causing the stairs to lower itself down. The elf slowly got up from the ground, before running down the stairs, being able to get enough energy from being away from the Nightmare Crown. James ran up to Leaf, seeing that he was still a bit weakened.

"Leaf, are you okay?!" James shouts, running up to him. Leaf looks at James, trying to catch his breath.

"Makoto...that bitch threw her into the Nightmare Realm..." Leaf said, before standing himself up. "...She's trapped in there...how are we going to get her out of there?"

"I...I think we'll have to go in there, but..."

"Oh, you are going in there!" Preston's voice shouts from the top of the stairs. "Those creatures in that dimension were suppose to come out because of you, Leaf...or James, or...or..." Preston points at James, growling in anger. "Forget it, both of you are..."

Before Preston could finish his sentence, a branch whacks the prep right in the face, sending him falling off the second floor, and onto a pile of boxes. Preston stood up, before glaring at Petal. He balls a fist, before he started to make his way towards her. But not before Leaf throws a light of magic at the prep, making the prep be sent upstairs again to accidentally run into Esma. The two fell to the ground, causing the Nightmare Crown to fall off of her head.

Leaf and Pine-Cone were able to get their energy back. Petal looks over to the elf that she was friends with, surprised to be seeing him once again, after so long of him being gone. James and Leaf ran up to the female elf, as Petal lowers the gem, finally able to see the elf she wanted to see again was here.

"Leaf! I thought I'd never see you again!" Petal said. Leaf stops in front of her, before holding onto her hands. "Your friends are kind of nice." James smiled.

"Thanks." James said. "When we noticed you were gone Leaf, Petal and...Pine-Cone, had to go and try to save you and Makoto." Leaf takes notice of Pine-Cone who was standing up now.

"Are you kidding me?! You also came along?!" Leaf asked, angry that he was here. "Why would the asshole who mocked me at the fruit forest be somebody who came to save my life?!" Pine-Cone brushes himself off, before looking at Leaf.

"Well, Petal told me to." Pine-Cone said. "Also...I believe you have something to tell her..."

"I do?" Leaf asked, confused, before nodding his head. "Oh, okay...I know what you're talking about." Leaf looks over to Petal, holding both of her hands, while looking at her eyes. "Petal, I believe you know why I ran away from the Forest of the Elves...I'm so sorry that I've ever did that, but...I know you might still disagree with me on this, but I still stand by what I said that these humans are not as bad as the other elves are making it out to be. James and Jenny have been nice to me ever since we've met, and they and I have been very good friends." James nods his head. "As for me being lazy, and kind of an outcast from the rest of the elves...I wanted to be better...for you..." Petal nods her head.

"I...hear you loud and clear on all of that..." Petal said, before continuing to speak. "...I believe that I should apologize to you as well, about...since...you needed somebody back there when everyone else in the village were treating you like you had no reason to be there." Petal looks down, before speaking more to Leaf. "I just need you to know that regardless of whether or not that you're like the other elves or not...you always will be a close friend of mine...and...how I acted back there, when every elf in the village was wanting me to not be friends with you, and me ignoring you..." Petal sighed. "...I'm sorry I...did all of that, and I'm sorry that I made you feel like you didn't belong in our village, just like everyone else was..." Petal hugs him, before James spoke up.

"Hey, I know this is all heart-warming and stuff, but...couldn't the hugging and you confessing your love for each other be saved until after the Nightmare Crown is finally destroyed? As well as Makoto being out of the Nightmare Realm?" James asks them.

"James has got a point. Makoto's still trapped in the Nightmare Realm." Leaf said.

"Who's Makoto, exactly?" Petal asked him, a little confused.

"It's a long story who she is."

"But how are we going to get in that Nightmare Realm without any of us elves dead inside of it. There's only one gem that Petal has that can protect nature, and there's only three of us." Pine-Cone points out. Leaf points at the gem in Petal's hands, as the girl was looking at the portal and then the Nightmare Crown that Esma was trying to reach for.

"That gem is the king's gem?!" Leaf asked Pine-Cone.

"I bet Petal would also tell you it's a long story!"

Without a warning, Petal sends a blast of magic straight at the Nightmare Crown before Esma could grab it. A branch was able to grab the crown, before Esma could even get a hold of it. The MorcuCorp growls, before glaring at Petal.

"If Petal's only defense if that gem, I think that me and James got Makoto from here." Leaf said to Petal. "I would bring it with me, but...I'm not going to be selfish and let you and Pine-Cone die on this one, Petal. If I'm dead..." Leaf held Petal's hand, looking at her eyes. "...I love you." Petal closes her eyes, nodding her head.

"I love you too." Petal said, hoping that there's a chance that Leaf will survive this. Leaf looks over to James, giving him a look of worry, yet a hint of bravery.

"Well James...you ready for this?" James seemed hesitate, but nodded his head regardless. "Alright, then let's save Makoto from the Nightmare Realm."


	26. Chapter 26

The two boys didn't hesitate to run upstairs to get to the portal. The two boys ran up to the portal, seeing the dark blue fog that was coming out around it, and nothing but the sight of red being inside the vortex itself. It was probably the scariest thing James has ever encountered in his life, that's for sure.

"Leaf, just so you know, if we're really going in there to save Makoto, I feel like there's no turning back." James said. "Don't you know that you're weak whenever you're near this nightmare stuff? What if you..." Leaf looks down, shaking his head.

"I maybe into Petal more than Makoto, but I'm not just going to let her get destroyed in that dimension." Leaf said. "Who knows what could happen to somebody like her in there anyway."

"But Leaf, what about you?"

Leaf looks down, before looking behind himself at Petal who was trying to make sure that the crown was high in the air. Esma was already trying to stand up, as Preston was still trying to wake up from being knocked down. Closing his eyes for a couple moments, Leaf looks at James.

"Then...I already said what I needed to say to Petal. The other elves might not see me as much of one of them, but I'm happy that I was able to call somebody a friend for once." Leaf said, smiling at James.

The geeky goth pulls out the toy badge that he's been keeping ever since his father's death. He hugs it for a couple seconds, before placing it back into his pocket. He then wipes a tear from his eye, before facing the portal.

"Then I hope my dad is watching over me when I do this..." James said, before he and Leaf nodded at each other. "Then let's do this."

"Let's do this." Leaf said, bumping fists with James.

The two boys ran into the Nightmare Realm's portal, leaving Petal and Pine-Cone to fight off Esma and Preston. Or in this case, just Esma, as the prep decided to go into the Nightmare Realm to follow James and Leaf in there to stop them. Petal stared at Preston as he entered the portal as well, not being aware of the fact that Esma was coming right behind her.

At the last second, Jenny came into the warehouse, through the back door, noticing the MorcuCorp girl behind the female elf. The geeky girl kicks a nearby cart with boxes on it, sending it going straight towards Esma. The female elf opened her eyes, seeing the cart knocking Esma out.

"You okay, Petal?!" Jenny asked, running up to her. Petal nods her head, looking at the MorcuCorp girl laying in a pile of boxes. "Where's James and Leaf?"

"They went into the Nightmare Realm to save Makoto." Petal said, looking back at the portal upstairs. "We can't destroy the crown with them in there! They'll be trapped forever if we do so!" Jenny then looks up at the crown that was above on the branches of the trees.

"At least the crown is away from Esma..."

The two looked over to the boxes, seeing Esma standing up from them. The girl then ran straight up to the branches, ready to climb up them. Jenny decided to hold Petal onto her own shoulder, keeping her eyes on Esma as she was climbing up to the crown.

"Of course she is..." Jenny mutters to herself, glaring up at the MorcuCorp girl. "Think we can try to stop Esma together?" Petal looked at the geeky girl for a few seconds, before nodding her head.

"Alright. What do you want me to do?" Petal asked her.

"Just try to slow Esma down as best as you can. I'll try to get to the crown."

"We'll try to stop her as best as we can." Pine-Cone said walking up to them.

"Thanks."

Jenny then charges straight towards the side of the trees. A branch broke right through the wall of the warehouse, as Jenny got onto it. She looks up at the ceiling as the branch went higher off of the ground.

* * *

Inside the Nightmare Realm...

It was a lot worse than Leaf would've thought it would be when they got in...

Once they got through the portal, it actually looks like the exact same place as it did in the town before. Exact the place was dark, and the color red was pretty much everywhere. The smell of death nearly made both boys sick to their stomachs. The two were standing in the exact same spot as the warehouse had the vortex located at.

The two ran downstairs, and over to the garage door that leads outside of the building. None of them could see Makoto anywhere in this town. It was the same as the town that it was back outside the Nightmare Realm. The only difference was was that it was completely red where the ground, and plants were, and the sky was completely black. The buildings looked the exact same as they did back outside of the Nightmare Realm, but they all looked old and abandoned. There also appeared to be pretty high mountains around the area they were in.

Leaf held the side of his head, as he was looking around the nightmare version of the town they were in. "So...I really need to know dude..." Leaf started off saying. "Is there anything that we need to worry about in this place, or not?"

"Yeah, we totally have a lot to worry about. Let's just say that there's monsters around here, and the last thing you need to do in here is to imagine your worst fear." James told the elf. Leaf walks over to the grass that was to the left of the outskirts of town, seeing the dying, red grass on the ground.

"Damn...if this is really what the plants looks like around here, I'd hate to see what the Forest of the Elves would look like in this place. Hell, I don't want to imagine how the elves around here are like, if everything here is a nightmare." Leaf cringed, before shaking his head. "Damn...the idea of actually using magic to save nature would be...oh crap...I can't imagine that..."

"Dude, whatever happens, we need to keep our minds off of what we fear the most, and not stumble upon those beasts around here."

"But where would Makoto be around a place like this anyway?" James looks over to the town, before looking at Leaf again.

"I really don't know..." James points at the town ahead of them. "...But if you ask me, I feel like Makoto isn't too far...hopefully, I mean...we just better hope she's in this part of the town and nowhere else."

The geeky goth then looked forward at the town again. He saw that there were black shadowy figures walking into the street. James then looks over to the nearby building. He saw an alley-way that leads behind the buildings. He then looks at Leaf.

"Then let's not stand around and wait for these guys to come find us here. If Jenny was here, she'd be telling me that these guys are not wanting visitors coming in their dimension. Come on." James said, running into the alley-way behind the nearest row of buildings.

Leaf then looks ahead, before following James into the back alley-way that the geeky goth was running into. The two boys ran through the alley-way, trying to find and reach Makoto before it's too late.

Little did they know, Preston just entered the Nightmare Realm once they entered the alley-way, anger shown on his face. The prep didn't see James and Leaf running through the alley-way, but he knew he was going to get his revenge on them, one way or the other. He didn't care if the monsters ended up finding him, he just wanted to get James and Leaf to die first, even if it kills him too.

* * *

Back outside of the Nightmare Crown...

Esma was just close to getting the Nightmare Crown from the top of the many tree branches that were breaking through the warehouse. The MorcuCorp girl gave the crown a smirk, before attempting to make her way towards the item hanging off of one of the branches. Esma ran as quick as she could, only for her to grab to the crown in the end...

But not before Jenny came along, also grabbing the crown from the other branch across the building...

Esma looks up, seeing Jenny also holding onto the crown as well. The girl's smile of victory turned into shock, then anger. She tried to pull the crown away from Jenny, as the geeky girl was holding onto the branch she was on. Jenny also pulled at the Nightmare Crown, glaring at Esma.

"Let go of the crown, you bitch! You lost!" Esma screams at her.

"Me, James, and Leaf didn't lose yet, Esma!" Jenny shouts, attempting to pull the Nightmare Crown from the MorcuCorp girl. "Morcubus's plan back, he didn't succeeded in it...there's no way I'm letting you finish this!"

"Oh, I know exactly how I'm finishing all of this!" Esma pulls at the crown even harder, sending Jenny off of the edge. Esma glared down at Jenny. "Time for you to die, Jenny!"

Esma kicks Jenny's hand, making the geeky girl let go of the ground. Petal threw some magic up towards the spot that Jenny was falling at, causing a branch to come out of one of the trees. The branch comes Jenny, just in time.

"Thanks Petal!" Jenny shouts from the branch. Petal began to float herself upward towards the direction that Esma was running towards. The female elf got in front of Esma, stopping her from moving anywhere else. "What the?! Oh, I'm so scared, an elf has be stopped with her little gem..." Esma glared at Petal. "...Step aside, chump!"

"Do know that the power you have in the Nightmare Crown is hazardous to the world around you!" Petal shouts. "It doesn't matter if you want to rule or the world or not! Opening the power will not only endanger the rest of the elves, but you'll destroy the world as well!"

"You know, if only I cared what you're telling me..."

"Then you'd probably care if we stop you." Pine-Cone said, holding up a hand full of magic. "Hand over the crown so that that gem can be destroyed, once and for all!"

"Oh...you know, you say that...but then I took the realization that the Nightmare Realm is where James and Leaf are in right now, saving that robot girl from being destroyed by a bunch of nightmare creatures." Petal and Pine-Cone kept their glares on Esma, as she was backing up from them. "You know...since you guys want to destroy this new Nightmare Crown, I think I'll destroy it...after a monster comes out of the portal. But it might be awhile until a monster finds that portal...but enough talk, once I see a figure come out of there that's either Preston or a shadowy nightmare creature, this crown is going to be destroyed."

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Jenny shouts from behind Esma, running straight at her.

"What the..."

Just without a warning, Jenny starts to attack Esma, trying to get the crown from her. Esma tried her best to fight back, only for the crown to be taken away by, once again, another tree branch that just broke it's way into the warehouse. Esma and Jenny glared at each other, before they started to charge straight for the crown again.

Petal sends some magic towards Esma, keeping the MorcuCorp girl from moving any further. Jenny hops onto the branch that the Nightmare Crown was on, picking it up, then looking over to the portal into the Nightmare Realm. She looked extremely worried for her boyfriend and her two other friends.

"James...I hope you're okay in there..." Jenny said softly to herself.


	27. Chapter 27

Inside the Nightmare Realm again...

James and Leaf ran through the back alley-way of the many buildings trying to find Makoto. The geeky goth was in leading the way, while Leaf was following right behind him. They ran, and they ran, until they stopped at the town's middle area, where the town hall is at. The two behind one of the buildings, before they saw a random monster pass by them.

They kept their eyes on the shadowy beast as it passed by the building they were hiding behind, before they looked over to the town hall building. James then looks at another nearby alley that was right across the street. The boy picks up a nearby rock off of the ground, before tossing it straight towards the nearby window of a random building far away from them. The couple monsters heard the noise, giving James and Leaf enough time to run across the street.

"Where would Makoto be in a place like this? It's like she's nowhere around here." James said, looking behind himself at the elf.

"I don't know, dude." Leaf said. "If this is really the Nightmare Realm, who knows how huge this place is. She could be literately anywhere in this world."

"Well, knowing that we've been in this town for a very long while, I think that she doesn't really have any other place to go outside of this place. Aside from me and Jenny's hometown, I mean." James crossed his arm, before glaring at the alley-way. "But that would be impossible, if those monsters don't want to kill her along the way there."

"Then she must be close..." Leaf held the side of his head, before staring off to the nearby forest. "Wait...I think I see something, James..." Leaf points towards the cave in the distance. "It's the cave that we went down, following Preston and Esma in, to get the rare metal. Maybe Makoto's in there, right?"

"...And you're jumping to that conclusion just by the cave itself?"

"Then what's that light that's flickering in there if the only humans that are in here are us?"

"What are you..."

James looks forward, seeing what looks like a shining light that would be found on a flashlight, flickering inside the cave. So far, James was thinking of his own fear, nor did it seem like Leaf was either. So by the looks of it alone, it seems like this might be where Makoto is located at.

But before James could make a break for the cave, he took notice of Preston moving out in the distance. He noticed the light from a mile away, which he assumes it's either one of the two. James places a hand in front of Leaf, keeping him from walking into the open, as Preston walked into the cave. Just as Preston entered the cave, that was when the two started to make their move towards the cave in the mountain.

"Are you crazy?! Why would allow Preston to reach Makoto, dude?!" Leaf asked. "We have enough trouble being in here as it is!"

"We don't know if Makoto's actually in there, or if it's some monster playing some sort of trick on us." James said, as the two ran onto the dying, red grass that leads straight to the cave in the distance. "If that's a monster trying to get us into that cave to kill us, it's better Preston goes in first so we know if that's really Makoto or not." Leaf cringed, as they were still running.

"Still king of a jerk move there, James."

"No offense dude, but do you want to die in a world like THIS?!"

James points behind himself, as a nightmare monster steps onto a bench, breaking it into pieces as it was walking by. Leaf's eyes widened by the sight of that happening, only to turn around to face the cave, cringing at the sight of that. He slowly nodded, just as they arrived at the cave.

"Makoto?! Are you in there?!" James shouts, looking inside the cave, standing by the side of it. A voice was spoken immediately, only to discover that it's Preston.

"YOU?! If you're out there..." Preston's voice said, trailing off, before a couple seconds later. "...Well, you're the only who was flickering that light!"

"James! Leaf! HELP!" Makoto screams inside the cave.

James looks behind himself at the town, before looking at Leaf, silently nodding his head at him. Leaf silently nods his head as well. The two fist-bumped on it, before the two started to make their way into the cave so that they can save Makoto from being attacked by Preston.

* * *

Inside the cave...

Makoto was backing up from Preston as he was trying to trap her in the same room that they had the fight inside. It felt like only seconds ago, that Preston was in this room, finally being revealed to him that Leaf is an elf, with magic as well. But he had no time for remembering a time like that. He had Makoto right where he wanted him.

"Well...well...well...now isn't this just how you will end up dying, hmm?" Preston asked the robot with a smirk on his face. "Too bad it had to be in the Nightmare Realm of all places, you know." Makoto glared at Preston, backing up from him.

"You'll never win this, Preston. Once James and Leaf are here, you're done for." Makoto said, ready to pick up a nearby tool off of the table behind her.

"I'm not scared of you, Makoto...you and Leaf act like I'm afraid of you, when in reality, I'm not." Preston pulls out a hammer from his back pocket, glaring at the robot as she was approaching her. "Kind of a shame that things escalated to this..."

"Not if we have anything to say about you attacking her!" Leaf shouts from the cave entrance, sending an orb of purple magic at the prep.

The magic hits Preston's arm, causing the prep to scream in pain. The cave shook after the scream happened, causing some small rocks to fall from the ceiling above. The two boys ran into the cave room, seeing Makoto was standing there, in front of Preston. Leaf held up a hand, signaling her to come towards them right now.

Makoto ran straight for Leaf and James. The robot girl hugs Leaf, happy to see him. "Leaf...I-I thought you'd be killed by those guys...or one of the monsters..." Makoto said, still keeping the elf in a hug. "I was chased by one of the creatures while one of them was in the warehouse. I thought they got out of the Nightmare Realm by mistake..." James shook his head at Makoto.

"If there was a nightmare creature leaving the Nightmare Realm, we'd probably get rid of it before it could kill anyone." James said to the robot. The boy then picks up the hammer off of the ground.

"Oh, don't you three dare try to escape me!" Preston shouts, getting up from the ground. "I'm not finished with you the most, James..." The geeky goth glared at Preston, clearly angry with him still.

"Leaf...try to get Makoto to the portal..." James said to the elf. "...I'll handle Preston on my own."

"I won't back down from a prick like you, James..."

"Are you nuts, dude?! I'm not leaving you in here!" Leaf said, looking at his new best friend in shock. "If we leave, you'd be left behind!"

"Then stay outside the cave! I'll slow Preston down so you and Makoto can get away from him!" James said, before glaring at Preston again. "Not to mention...I feel like this is well-deserved after all the times he screwed my entire life over." Preston balled up his fists, glaring at James.

"Then drop the hammer...me and you are using fists instead..." Preston said, before wiping sweat off of his forehead.

"Agreed..."

James threw the hammer he picked up aside, running straight at Preston. Leaf and Makoto started to make their way out of the cave. James and Preston were not fighting each other, as they were escaping.

* * *

Outside the cave...

Makoto and Leaf finally got outside the cave. The two stayed outside of the cave, looking inside of it, before Leaf took a bit of worry for his own best friend. He did tell him to go straight out of the cave, and then head for the Nightmare Realm, but he can't just leave him in there to die. Leaf looks down at his arm, before looking at Makoto one more time.

"I got to go back for him." Leaf said, looking at the robot girl. "Stay out here, I'm not just going to head back to the real world, knowing James is left behind to fight off Preston." Makoto shook her head, grabbing onto Leaf's wrist as he was trying to head back inside.

"Leaf, James told us to go back to the portal!" Makoto said, not wanting Leaf to go back inside the cave.

"Well, I'm not abandoning him." Leaf frowns, looking at the robot girl. "I don't listen to other elves...and they want me to be more helpful around the Forest...I never saved anyone, nor did I even help anyone else...and I might've never saved anyone's life..." Leaf then looks inside the cave again, before looking at Makoto one more time. "...As far as I'm concern now, from all my time being here with the humans...I'm no longer not helping, and not leaving without James." Makoto stared at the elf for a few seconds.

"If this is the end...at least..."

Makoto steps forward to Leaf, placing a hand onto his shoulders. She leans in closer to Leaf, kissing him on the cheek one more time, in hopes of him surviving this fight. Leaf sighed at the robot's kiss, before backing up from her. Makoto frowns, still feeling like trying to get Leaf to fall in with her is futile at this point.

"T-Thank you..." Leaf said, before backing up into the cave to go save James. Makoto stared inside the cave, as Leaf ran into it to save the geeky goth.

"Please be safe, Leaf..." Makoto said, softly.


	28. Chapter 28

Inside the cave again...

James and Preston were fighting each other on the bridge that they were at before. James tried his best to avoid every single punch that Preston attempts to throw at him. Some he dodged, others he didn't. Doesn't help that the two were on a rickety bridge over a trench of darkness.

Preston was able to knock the geeky goth with a punch. James fell down onto the boards he was standing on, almost breaking them in the process. The goth grabs onto the rope connecting the bridge, trying to stand himself up onto his own feet. He glares at Preston, anger still seen in his eyes.

"You know this is the end of the line for you, Louiston..." Preston growls, stepping closer to him. "If you just stayed the hell out of everything that me and Esma were doing...didn't tell Beebee I was cheating on her with Esma...you didn't try to destroy everything I know and love...it didn't have to lead to something like this..." James stood up, holding the side of his stomach, before glaring upward at Preston.

"Yet you've tried to help Esma...MorcuCorp was not a place full of heroes..." James said, not removing his glare off of the prep. "...And you knew that Esma was a bad guy, the moment you laid eyes on her. I thought I knew you better than this, Preston..." The prep walks up to the geeky goth, grabbing onto his arm. "...You didn't have to go and do this...you knew you didn't have to..."

"But I had to..."

"For what? To date Esma?" The geeky goth shook his head, still not removing his glare from Preston. "What kind of bastard cheats on his own true love...I thought you loved Beebee..." Preston rolled his eyes.

"Oh give me a break..."

"What kind of human even are you?" Preston than punches James in his cheek, knocking the boy to the ground.

"You know NOTHING about me and Beebee's relationship! If you dated her, you'd know how much of an idiot she is!" James stood up, balling a fist.

"But she still loves you! THAT is how you treat her back by doing?!"

James punches Preston in his cheek, sending the prep backwards. The prep kept his balance, before glaring at James, wiping blood off of the side of his face. The prep kept a fist prepared, before walking closer to the geeky goth, who was still berating him for his actions.

"I never wanted to see you as some asshole from the first time we met, Preston...but you chose to do what you do, now...you have no other choice but to give up..." James said, still bitter. "You lost Beebee, whatever crazy plan you have here is done for...the SPA Agency will hear about this once we're out of here...it's over, Preston...it really is over..." Preston lowers his arm from his face, charging straight at James.

"It's only over...until I SAY IT IS!" Preston shouts at the end, charging at James, sending one more punch at him.

James was knocked down, breaking right through the weak boards on the bridge. He kept looking up, falling straight down to his doom. He had no idea where the darkness goes, but if it's his own death, he never knew it would end like this.

He felt tears coming out of his eyes, realizing his life might actually end rather sooner than he hoped for. He would end up leaving Jenny, Ray, Raven, Violet, Leaf, Aunt Nova, his own mother, all of his other friends. If Leaf and Makoto really did run back to the portal, he guesses that he will die trying to save two people.

But before James could feel any sort of pain, he noticed that there was purple magic around him. He opens his eyes, before looking up, seeing Leaf, holding out a hand off of the edge of the bridge that leads to the exit out of the cave. Leaf felt weak, as the energy in the Nightmare Realm still hurts him when he is using magic. He tried his best to lift James out of the trench.

Once James was out of the trench, Leaf fell to his knees, feeling completely weak now. The geeky goth kneeled down to his aid, as Preston remained standing in the bridge when the whole ordeal happened right in front of him.

"You survives?!" Preston shouts, glaring at the two boys. "THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!"

Preston shouting that was a massive mistake once he did that. The prep noticed the entire cave shaking once he let out that scream, before looking up, seeing the many rocks beginning to fall off of the ceiling above. One of the rocks landed right onto the bridge, just as Preston tried to back up from it. The prep tried to get off the bridge, only for the entire thing to collapse as he attempted to run off of it. Preston fell right into the trench.

James helps Leaf up, looking at what just happened in front of him. The two slowly made their way out of the cave, James keeping Leaf standing by his arm as they were walking out of the cave. More rocks came down from the ceiling above, as the rocks tore up the bridge and filled the entire room.

"Thanks for saving me back there, Leaf." James said, as he still tried to bring Leaf out of the cave before it entirely collapsed.

"No problem, man..." Leaf said, feeling pain after using magic to save his best friend. "...Wish Preston decided to take over some...dimension with cotton candy instead...that would be a lot more humane than this hellish area."

"I know..."

The geeky goth looks behind himself, still disturbed that they were leaving the Nightmare Realm without Preston with them. The geeky goth never wanted things to lead to Preston supposedly dying in this dimension. He still couldn't believe what he had witnessed right in front of him. He too was close to death, but still, he couldn't believe that Preston was gone.

"We gotta keep moving if you're going to survive..." James said, as the two exits the cave. "Makoto, help me out here! We got to get Leaf out of here, now." Makoto held onto Leaf, then the three of them started to make their way to the portal out of the Nightmare Realm.

* * *

Outside of the Nightmare Realm...

Jenny still remained standing on the branch, looking towards the portal, hoping her boyfriend, and her two other friends manage to make it out alive. She kept the crown in her hands, as Esma was able to get herself loose from the magic.

The MorcuCorp girl lands onto the branch where Jenny was at, ready to grab the Nightmare Crown back from her. So Esma charges straight at the girl, reaching for the crown. Petal and Pine-Cone tried to throw magic at Esma, but she was too fast for them to stop her this time.

Esma leaps at Jenny, attempting to grab the crown back from her. Jenny tried her best to keep the crown away from Esma's reach, only for it to almost fall out of her hands when she was holding it near the edge of the branch by mistake. Her final attempt to grab a hold of the crown was futile, as it slips out of Jenny's hand, and off of the branch.

Thankfully, for Jenny, the crown broke, just as Makoto, James, and Leaf all jumped through the portal at the same time. The three made it through the portal as the crown hits the floor.

Once the Nightmare Crown broke on the ground, the portal disappeared behind them. The force-field outside started to go away, bringing back the beautiful blue sky. The blue fog went away after a couple seconds later. Now that the Nightmare Crown and the gem were destroyed, Leaf's energy was coming back to him. He stood up from the ground, as Esma and Jenny were staring down from the branch they were sitting on.

"Where the hell is Preston?!" Esma asked, glaring down at the three that made it out of the Nightmare Realm in time. Leaf, with his energy not getting hurt, snaps his fingers, appearing right next to Esma.

"Well...you see..." Leaf started off saying, before floating in the air next to the girl. "...Preston, may or may not be..." Leaf snaps his fingers again, causing himself to be trapped in a floating cage. "...Trapped in the Nightmare Realm inside the same exact cave that you and him found that rare metal inside." The boy breaks the cage he made appear, then shrugs his shoulders. "So...yeah...the bitter irony. Am I right?"

Edna stared at Leaf with her mouth open. She couldn't believe that James and Leaf just abandoned Preston in the Nightmare Realm without a second thought. She grew angry almost instantly, as she balled a fist, ready to punch Leaf for his actions.

"Yeah, I had a feeling you'd want to punch me for that..." Leaf said, before zooming pass Esma as she threw a punch at him. Leaf was now before her. "...You know, fighting an elf who can teleport isn't helping you one bit, dude. Just saying." Leaf then holds Jenny by the shoulder. "Oh, before I forget."

Leaf teleports himself and Jenny over to James, who was watching the whole thing in front of him. Leaf then floats himself back up to Esma, giving the girl a smirk with his arms crossed.

"Oh, be smug all you want...once Morcubus leaves prison, your sorry ass will be done for Leaf. You, James, and Jenny's sorry ass are going to be the first people I will go after first!" Esma shouts, poking the elf on his chest. "DO YOU HEAR ME?!" The MorcuCorp girl asked harshly, moving herself closer to Leaf's eyes, glaring into them.

"I hear you." Leaf said, keeping his arms crossed as Esma was glaring at him.

"FURTHERMORE, I WILL..."

Without warning, Esma heard the sound of police sirens outside of the warehouse. She stopped telling, before her angry face turned into a face of pure fear. She looks over to the giant broken window of the warehouse, seeing that there were police sirens outside of the building, most likely because of her.

"That's the SPA Agency, isn't it?" Esma asked, looking down at Jenny, James, and Makoto. Jenny was slowly nodding her head. "It's for Leaf?" Jenny shook her head 'no' at her. "So...it's for me? They are arresting me?" Jenny nodded her head with a smirk on her face. "Of course they are..." Leaf gave Esma a smirk, before lowering himself down from the branch she was standing on.

"But wait...who called the SPA while we were in there?" James asked. "It doesn't seem like any of us had the time to do that." Jenny looks over to James.

"I guess Beebee was the person who did that." Jenny said to him.

"Right." James glares up at Esma, pointing at her. "Now you have to surrender." Esma lowers her head, growling, and shaking her head in annoyance.


	29. Chapter 29

It seems like Esma is now taken care of. The MorcuCorp girl was going to finally be arrested, and now the entire world doesn't have to deal with MocruCorp for a long time now. A couple of agents were taking Esma to one of the police cars, ready to take her away from this town, and back to the prison where she belongs.

Outside of the warehouse, Jenny sat on the side of the sidewalk, watching two agents placing the girl she hated into one of the police cars. Beebee came out of one of the buildings nearby, walking up to Jenny, seeing that she was sitting there at the sidewalk by herself. Beebee sat besides her, as Jenny was watching Esma getting into the back of one of the police cars.

"I'm guessing you're the one who got the SPA Agency down here?" Jenny asked, not removing her eyes off of what was happening with Esma.

"Not surprised?" Beebee asked.

"I think me and my friends saw that coming from a mile away, really." Jenny then turns her head towards the girl in pink next to her. "Hey...I'm sorry that...you had to figure out what Preston was doing. I wish it came out differently rather than how it did." Beebee shook her head, glaring down at the ground. "Also...this is kind of an awkward thing to bring up, but...Preston is trapped in the Nightmare Realm...since he wasn't there with James, Leaf, or Makoto when they escaped from that dimension..."

"Forget about that...meanie."

"You mean prick...or asshole...as son of a bitch? He was going to just destroy the world if he and Esma's plan went anymore further."

"Sure...sure..." Beebee lowers her head. "...Now who will be my boyfriend?" Jenny cringed, before patting Beebee on her back.

"If you ask me, why not just wait on a boyfriend? No offense, you still agreed to date a guy who tried to get Paul the Yeti arrested for no reason, and he almost got away with that." Beebee nods her head, before getting ready to stand up. "Just take my advice. It's been...quite a week for all of us, Beebee."

"It's been a completely hard week for me, yeah. I need to just go home."

"Alright."

Beebee walks off, as Jenny turns her head towards the three that were in the Nightmare Realm. James, Leaf, and Makoto were talking to Agent Walker and Eleanor who were by the car they took to get here, as Petal and Pine-Cone were standing by. Petal had her gem glowing.

The two elves were using the magic from the gem to get rid of the trees that have destroyed the warehouse. Once the trees were gone, the rest of the warehouse crumbled to the ground. Petal places the gem back into the bag she was carrying, before turning towards the three that were in the Nightmare Realm before. The three were actually finished with talking to Agent Walker and Eleanor when they came over.

"Leaf, are you okay?" Petal asked him. Leaf nods his head, looking down at the ground.

"Yeah. I am now." Leaf said. "I thought that I was going to die in there, but...me and James made it through. Hell, I thought James was going to die." James looked humiliated hearing that being said.

"Don't...don't bring that up, Leaf..." James said. "...Either way, uh...now what, Petal? You're here...and...well, I'm guessing you're here for Leaf...but...now what?" Petal looks over to James, face turning into a sad frown when she looked at him.

"As much as I hate to say this, but...me and Leaf return home."

"WHAT?!"

"I know that you, Jenny, and Makoto have proven to me that there are kind humans here, more than what the rest of the elves were making it out to me...but as much as we'd like to stay, Leaf belongs to the Forest of the Elves." Petal closes her eyes, sighing, before continuing what she is hesitating to tell the human and robot. "Leaf is not being punished, as...seconds later, the king is going to...leave this world...and..." Leaf's eyes widened hearing that.

"WHAT?! THE KING IS GOING TO DIE?!" Leaf asked, shocked and devastated.

"I'm afraid so." Petal pulls out the gem she was given, before continuing to explain some more about this to Leaf. "He gave me this gem since...I never told you this Leaf, but...I'm his granddaughter."

"There is a lot that I don't even know about..."

"I apologize for being secretive about a couple things in my life." Petal than sighed, before continuing on with what she was trying to say. "But, still, every elf in the Forest of the Elves is important in some sort of way, one way or the other. Every elf on our island do everything in our power to protect and defend nature. Leaf might be a slacker, but he has a reason to be in our forest regardless." James was still not wanting this to be the case for his new best friend. He spoke up.

"Is there really no other way than this?" James asked the female elf. "He and I have just began being best friends, and...I feel like...like..." James wipes a tear from his eye, before speaking some more. "...I feel like this is too soon." Petal rubs her chin, before smiling a little bit.

"Well, considering that you humans are not as terrible as us elves are making it out to be, I think that Leaf can sort out any nature problem that comes around here." Petal said, in hopes of lifting James's spirit up. "Because by the looks of it, there might be some places around the human section of the world that might need some help with nature." James stops tearing up, hearing that being said.

"For real now?"

"Of course. Like I said, there might be some help with nature. Whether it could be problems with the trees, or the flowers, or the animals...anything that involves nature, we will come over to you humans, and we'll help whatever nature problems are going on around here." Petal looks around the town they were in. "I don't know how much humans there are in this world, but there might be a lot more places that may or may not need our help when it comes to that." Petal then looks over to James. "Is there more places that humans live in aside from Canada?"

"Well, there's America, there's England, there's France, Australia, Germany...a couple other countries where there's a lot of nature around them." Petal smiled, nodding her head.

"Wonderful. Guess Leaf might be the one who might be visiting around here quite more often than not."

"Alright. Sounds awesome." Leaf said.

Leaf, James, and Makoto all walked off to the corner of the block so that they can talk to themselves. Petal went off to go talk to Jenny along with Pine-Cone. Leaf stared back at Petal as he was walking away with James and Makoto by the side of the corner of the block. Leaf crossed his arms, looking at his two other friends.

"Hey, dude...I thought you were going to die after saving my life back there, you know?" James said to Leaf. The elf gave the geeky goth a smirk, before patting him on his back.

"Oh, James...I would've died...but I didn't." Leaf said, happy that things went the way they did. "I mean, we were lucky enough to be fast enough to get out of there, but hey, at least we did, am I right dude?" James nods his head.

"Couldn't agree with you more on that one."

"Oh, you talk like such boys." Makoto said, before looking over to Leaf, pointing at Petal. "Who...is that exactly? I don't think I was ever told about her before after you brought me back." Leaf noticed that Makoto was referring to his crush. Feeling like this was going to be tough, he finally spoke.

"Petal is...or was...or still is, don't really know yet...she's my crush from the Forest of the Elves. She, to me, is somebody who has always been someone I...can't really help but fall in love with, you know? She's just the most beautiful female elf in all of my village." Leaf's eyes widened, remembering what his crush told her moments ago. "...Now I'm hearing she's also the granddaughter of the king of all of the elves. Damn...I can only imagine what kind of..." Leaf took notice in Makoto staring at him with a blank expression on her face. "Oh...right, you still have a crush on me, hmm?"

"I still do." Makoto said, looking down to the sidewalk. "I mean...I guess I shouldn't be surprised already, since...I felt like you're not the only elf in this world." Makoto sighed, before finally beginning to give Leaf the benefit of the doubt in this. "...I will manage to be okay with you going back to the Forest of the Elves, since you have friends and family there too...but...if you really want to go be with Petal...I will also try to manage you being together with her..."

Leaf felt pretty terrible with leaving Makoto this way. He stared back at Petal for a couple moments, before looking back at the robot girl once again. He had feelings for both girls still. Hoping that he was going to be doing the right thing when he does this, he places a hand on Makoto's shoulder, smiling at the robot girl.

"Hey, you know what? I think I can make you feel better by saying this." Leaf started off saying, before continuing to speak. "One of these days I'm going to return so that I can make sure that nature around these parts of the world are safe from harm. I haven't decided whether or not to be with Petal, but...the moment I come back here, I'll make sure to tell you what my decision is. Okay?" Makoto stared at him with a blank expression on her face. She then gave him a light smile.

"Okay." Leaf nods his head, patting her on the shoulder one more time, before backing up. "I'll never forget you, Leaf."

"I'll never forget you too, Makoto." Leaf then looks at James. "...And James..." The geeky goth smiled at him. "...Thanks for...being my friend when I needed one. You might've thought I was nothing more but somebody pretending he was an elf, but...a couple hours later, you and I began just...awesome friends, you know?" James nods his head.

"Totally." James said. "Promise you'll be back one of these days?" Leaf holds up a fist.

"You bet." James holds up a fist as well, bumping his against Leaf's fist. "...Well...one of these days, dude." James nods his head.

"One of these days."

The male elf walked over to his crush, before Petal and Pine-Cone turned to face their direction. Petal gave Leaf a smile, seeing how much this visit to the human area of the world actually made him more mature as an elf with magic. She felt bad for assuming the humans were bad to begin with, but now that she was seeing that things were not as they seem, she was actually willing to try to get the other elves to give the human section of the world a chance one day.

James and Makoto stood there, smiling at Leaf as he, Petal, and Pine-Cone were walking over to the part of the ground where the grass was. Jenny walked over to her boyfriend, holding his hand as she also watched the elves. James then looks down at his phone, before pulling his headphones out, and giving one of the parts to Jenny. The girl places one of the headphones into her ear, as James started to play the song '_Right Here_' by Staind while he and his girlfriend were watching the elves about to leave the spot.

With Leaf, Petal, and Pine-Cone now, the only girl elf was using her magic to try to make a vortex into the ground. The same exact vortex that Leaf made to send himself over to that forest to begin with. Leaf looks behind himself, seeing James, Jenny, and Makoto standing there, watching him about to leave. He had to go, but he was staying to his promise that he wasn't going to forget them, and he'll visit them one of these days. He faces Petal, smiling at her.

"So...uh...since I am going to be returning to the Forest of the Elves...will the other elves be pissed with me for leaving, still...or are they willing to forgive me for that?" Leaf asked her.

"Well...I'll try to tell them everything they need to know about what had happened while you were here. I bet apart of that was nothing more but fun, while another part was you dealing with...the girl with bunny ears and that red jacket, as well as some prep." Petal said. Leaf rolled his eyes, happy that that was over for him.

"Thank God that asshole prep boy is in that Nightmare Realm, trapped under rocks."

"What?!"

"Oh, nothing...nothing...that was probably...uh...Esma's fault, or something. I don't know."

Leaf and Petal stared at each other for a couple seconds, before the three elves entered the portal together in unison. The portal slowly closed, as James, Jenny, and Makoto watched all of this happen in complete silence. The only noise was the wind blowing through their hair, and the music playing on James's phone.

"They've left..." James said, softly to his girlfriend.

"Yep." Jenny said. "Esma's in jail...Preston is...who the hell knows...and Leaf is finally returning home." Jenny then looks at Makoto, who was a few steps away from them. "You think there's a chance that Makoto and Leaf will ever be together?" Makoto didn't move her eyes off of the spot the portal was at.

"Not sure. Leaf did say a lot about Petal, and how much he loved her." James took notice of Makoto standing there in silence. "Whatever Leaf decides for himself, I just hope that Makoto is happy with it regardless." James then looks at the time on his phone. "Well...I think this has been quite the adventure...shall we go back to our home?" Jenny nods her head.

"Yeah. We should head home now." Jenny then looks at Makoto who was still standing there, watching the same exact spot. "Let's leave Makoto there for a couple moments, while we find your car, alright?" James nods his head again.

"Yeah."

Jenny and James walked off to find the car, letting Makoto stand there, waiting for them to find the car. She was going to miss Leaf, but still hoped that he comes back into her life one of these days, whenever he has the chance to. With a couple more seconds, she finally moved away from her spot, following James and Jenny to find their car.


	30. Chapter 30

A month later...

Petal was inside her grandfather's castle, walking through one of the castle corridors. Her hair was the same, and her outfit was now the same dress, but now it has a dark green long-sleeved over shirt, with bracelet that has the gem of nature connected to it. She was now the defender of all nature, now that the king had passed away of old age. It was going to be difficult for Petal to live in the castle, knowing her grandfather is now gone.

The female elf walked down the corridor, before stopping at a picture of her grandfather that was on a table near the entrance of the throne room. She picks it up, before taking a good look at it. She felt a tear coming down her eye, knowing the funeral was just days ago. It was hard for Petal to take in, given how close she was to her own grandfather. She knew that he was in a better place now, but it still hurts him to think that he was still gone from her life now.

Leaf walked into the throne room, as Petal walked into the room as well. Leaf walked in wearing the same old outfit that he usually wears, minus for the fact that his jacket was more of a longer jacket with yellow shoulder-pads on them. He just found this jacket around the castle, and decided to wear it for fun.

"Well hello there, Leaf. I'm happy to see that you're finally here." Petal said, bowing her head at the male elf as he entered the castle.

"Hey, dude." Leaf said, smiling at the female defender of nature. "I see that you're enjoying this place as it is, hmm?" Petal looks at the bracelet on her hands, frowning in sadness at it.

"I...still miss the king...it feels like he left all of us too soon...I really am going to miss him being alive." Sighing, Leaf pats Petal on the side of her arm, before giving her a look of sympathy.

"Hey...I know your grandfather has passed away. But if I know you more than anyone else in this entire kingdom, I can tell you one thing. Look at me, Petal." The female elf looks up at Leaf, who gave her a smile. "The king, and your own parents raised you right. You're smart, you're brave, you're...good with this magic, and...if anything, you know exactly what you're doing, no matter what. You're basically the smartest elf in this village, and...I could've seen myself as the protector of nature myself, but...really..." Leaf blinked a couple times, before looking over to the left. "...I feel like...really, you deserve to be saving nature a lot more than I do, considering that...I am not really as mature as the other elves, and...really, you'd be better off as this anyway." Leaf pats Petal on her shoulder, smiling at her. "If your grandfather is still alive today...I know he'd be proud of you as well..."

Petal stood there staring at Leaf without saying anything. She gave him a light smile, before hugging him. Leaf smiled back at the female elf, before hugging her back, closing his eyes. The two backed up from each other, smiling at each other, before Petal reaches into her bag for something. She pulls out a gem that was in there, handing it over to the elf in front of her.

"W-What are you handing me this for?" Leaf asked the defender of nature. Petal smiled at him.

"I believe that today will be your first day trying to check a place in nature." Petal said.

She winks at him, backing away from him. Leaf instantly knew what she was referring to. Leaf looks at the gem that was in his hands, before looking over to the castle doors out. He then looks back at Petal, smiling at her, before placing the gem into his pocket. He backs up from the female elf, still smiling at him.

"I believe you know where you got to go first." Petal said, smiling at the boy as he was heading to the doors. "There shouldn't be anything that's too much of a problem, but make sure you visit a certain place that you found them at, before heading off to see if there's anything happening in the parks of Texas." Petal bows her head, before Leaf smiled back at her.

"Thanks, Petal." Leaf said, before walking over to the castle doors. "Also...thank you for letting the elves no longer bully me for what I'm interested in anymore, Petal." The girl bows once again.

"On your way, then Leaf."

Leaf goes through the doors, smiling as he did such. Petal smiled as he exits the castle, ready to head off to his house once again. She looks up at the window that was above the door, smiling as she stared at the window.

'_I think he's right, grandfather..._' Petal said in her thoughts. '_Thank you for being in my life, and allowing me to become the defender of all of the elves._'

* * *

Leaf exits the castle, smiling at the looks of the entire village that was right in front of him. He pulls out a small radio that he actually found back in the warehouse before he came back. Shrugging at the looks of it, he presses the button on the radio, before beginning to walk into the village. The song '_I'm Still Standing_' by Elton John was playing on the radio, as he was making his way back to the house.

The elf walks through the town, heading off to his house. A couple elves were watching Leaf as he was walking through the entire village. Some elves were just working as usual, as other elves were enjoying themselves as they were walking around the place. Leaf just continued to walk through the village.

A couple elves accidentally tipped over a basket of fruit, causing Leaf to throw some magic onto the basket, saving it from spilling all of the fruit inside of it. The boy then tosses some magic towards an elf carrying a stack of books, sending those books into the store for him. The elf gave Leaf a thumbs up as he entered the store. Leaf then walks over to a nearby bush, placing some magic onto it, making some flowers on it grow. He smiled, before he continued to walk towards his house.

Once he got to his house...

Leaf pulls out the gem that he was given, before holding it into the air. A portal came onto the same exact spot that Leaf made his first portal at before. He then notices that the song he was listening to ended, and the song '_Fly Away_' by Lenny Kravitz started to play on the radio now.

He looks down at the portal, before pulling out a photo that was in his portal. The photo was of himself, Jenny, Makoto, and James. He gave it a smile, before he then places the photo back into his pocket.

"Well...where am I going first? Maine or Texas?" Leaf asked, before looking down at the portal. "You know what...let's go with Maine first. That...is where my best friends are." With a smile on his face, Leaf hops into the portal, heading off to see his friends off in a familiar part of Maine.

* * *

**Note: Just like that, it's the end of the story. This story was something that I was passionate to create the moment I started it. Of course, I was inspired by the movie 'Hop' to make something like this, and it may show at some parts of this story. Either way, I hope you guys enjoyed this story, and until next time. Thanks for reading.**


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